Pluskylang Great Film overall

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

johannlafon-27643 First of all, if you do not get what this movie is truly about. Don't watch it, bothering to comment on how you don't get the point. That being said, which might be a bit upsetting for some. This film was really an enjoyable experience, in the sense that it is quite rare to watch the guts pouring out of honest film making. The acting is brilliant, tone is consistent throughout the film, which is rare enough to be mentioned. It is quite graphic, since most people experienced breaking bad, it is OK. Soundtrack by "the the" adds to the magnetic feel of the film. The action is driven, captivating, edgy. This is how more movies need to be made. I won't even compare to other, bigger budget, commercially successful gangster films. I won't explain the end since I found it quite good. Bonus if you read the anecdote section. Liked this movie a lot as you can tell by now. Thanks if you took time to read this review.

Red_Identity Really, when it comes down to it, I'm between a 6 and a 7 for this. It's fairly enjoyable, it just doesn't really do anything out of the ordinary until its ending. And if the mainstream likes this, they will absolutely hate the ending and everything it stands for. I don't say that lightly, they will definitely hate it and as a result hate the overall film. I do think the filmmakers should be given props for it, certainly did what they wanted and would rather make a great thematic point than try to just please audiences, and in that respect, they should be congratulated (and it also helps that it's the ind of ending that I usually love, so I wasn't displeased). The lead is really good and at times you really do wish that he was in a better film.

Theo Robertson Detective Sargeant Michael Logan is a corrupt cop and finds himself getting involved in a turf war between Albanians and Turks on the seedy streets of London's underworld And that's really it as far as plot goes but regardless of this I was dying to see HYENA since I'm a massive fan of Johnson . Not Gerard Johnson the director but Matt Johnson the composer here once known and revered as The The who made some of the greatest , innovative and diverse music of the 1980s . This innovation meant he wasn't the most popular or best selling artist in an era dominated by manufactured plastic pop by the hit factory of Stock , Aitken and Waterman and by the early 1990s The The were releasing fewer stuff that was increasingly under promoted and Matt and his collective haven't released any material via mainstream means since Naked Self in 2000 . In other words if you want to hear any new material you'll have to go out of your way . The good old days of popping in to Woolworths to buy a new release are long gone . You can download stuff via ITunes and Amazon but the material would have to be available in the first place !!!!! SUGGESTIVE SPOILERS !!!!! On the surface HYENA isn't all that different from another recent watch FILTH which has the same premise of corrupt cup finding redemption of sorts but that film suffered badly by being sourced from Irvine Welsh and when you've seen one Welsh film adaptation you've probably seen them all . HYENA is different and a rather difficult watch in some parts with rather disturbing parts such as a rape scene which doesn't leave much to the viewer's imagination . Gritty doesn't really do it justice . Gerard Johnson obviously doesn't have a big budget to play with but he does show imagination such as a police raid at the start of the film being directed in an extremely trippy manner . Since it's a character driven story revolving around a corrupt cop it's important that you cast correctly and Peter Ferdinando is very good as Logan and deserves to be better known . He is ably supported by the "usual suspects" of actors you'd expect to see in an independent low budget British movie but that said I've watched a lot of low budget indies where the cast are uniformly dreadful and one wonders why Johnson gets it right here when so many others have been getting it patently wrong ? Nice , moody soundtrack from Matt Johnson too that compliments the visuals and gives some of us hope that his career hasn't come to an abrupt jarring end like the ending of HYENA which is rather frustrating

calumhughes93 I liked the film, but I hated the ending. The best scenes of this film, are in the middle. The films really needs to be longer and fix the ending. It seems like they rushed the film. This film has themes , which are standard in British crime films. I like the setting in London. Narrow alleyways, roads. London is a big place that feels like in any big city. Crime could happen any time. The room that the trafficking victim. feels like a dungeon. A cop trying to stop drug trafficking is more like a criminal himself. It takes time to realise that he is the cop. In the beginning I thought he was a thug just breaking into a nightclub. Later on I realised the night club was suspicious. The traffickers are from Albania. There not just here for the drugs, also for the young woman. Not the most of original ideas, but nearly a true story. One disgusting scene when an overweight man is trying to sex with the young woman. Drugged the woman before having sex with her. They are trying to sell the woman.