With a great kitchen-sink cast (particularly Game Of Thrones’ Richard Dormer), and a moral murk so fetid even Harvey Keitel’s Bad Lieutenant might consider bailing out, it feels sickeningly, mundanely real, like The Bill does Filth .
Unlike last year’s Filth , though, Hyena doesn’t come across as if it’s reveling in its characters’ bad behavior.
While the flavorful Turkish-culture backdrop occasionally glimpsed could ideally have conjured a worthwhile U.K. variant on Omar Shargawi's pulsating tale of Copenhagen's Muslim community, Go With Peace Jamil, Johnson disappointingly settles for yet another flat-foot foray into the world of "dodgy" cops as seen in The Sweeney, Welcome to the Punch and Filth.
The narrative is basically a pastiche of elements cobbled together from such inspirations as the aforementioned "Bad Lieutenant," " Taken ," "Taxi Driver" and " Filth ," Irvine Walsh's darkly comic study of a thoroughly monstrous U.K. cop that was the basis for an equally lurid screen adaptation with James McAvoy in the lead role.
Logan’s corrupt investigator shares the same rotten traits as James McAvoy’s character in last year’s Filth, but this portrait is less personal because it’s the whole scene that stinks.
In terms of actions and attitude, Logan is a character not a million miles removed from James McAvoy’s coke-addled policeman in last year’s “Filth.”