BuyBust

BuyBust (2018)

Runtime: 127 minutes

Directed by: Erik Matti

Starring: Anne Curtis, Brandon Vera, Victor Neri, Arjo Atayde, Levi Ignacio

From: Reality Entertainment/Viva Films

This wasn't the Filipino film I was planning on seeing last night, but as sometimes occurs, a messageboard discussion inspired me to check this out. I've known of this for awhile so it was this talk that gave me the push to watch the film. More on what some people have said later.

BuyBust is another example of a motion picture that was “inspired” by The Raid. A few months ago I saw and reviewed Jailbreak, which was a Cambodian version of that riff. While Jailbreak had too much comedy and it did not always work, I thought it was fine overall as at least I enjoyed the action and how it was shot. I heard a key plot point in the aforementioned messageboard discussion that gave me pause-more on that later-but the entire tone of the movie was just a big turn-off.

The way they created the “special forces are stuck in cramped quarters against overwhelming odds” scenario was having special forces using a recently arrested guy to draw out a drug lord in the slums of Manila. Things go wrong and what results is action that I guess I'll say is satisfactory, although I was a little bamboozled that the lead girl does hand to hand combat and yet it was basic and not done all that well; curious decision... as others have said, I wouldn't have minded Brandon Vera (former UFC competitor and native Filipino) be the lead, as his fighting skills were better and I liked the character more. The fact that too many characters were either forgettable or not likable at all was a big issue, although not the biggest one.

The largest problem I had involved the subplot of the residents of this shanty town getting mad at the police as they could not prevent one of their citizens from being murdered. This results in those residents attacking all parties, and unfortunately this means our “heroes” killing said citizens. I do not know if this was some sort of satire or commentary on law enforcement in Manila/The Philippines; I do know that this made the film not enjoyable at all to watch. This was the detail I learned even before I saw the film-I found it puzzling but I did go into this with an open mind. But I was turned off by that.

It was nice seeing the country and various sites around Manila; yet even with a pulsating soundtrack and some scenes bathed in neon light, when this is not a lot of fun and this is over 2 hours long and it takes forever to get going... I will go there and say that this was a bust.