Bullet Points: BUYBUST (2018)
Finding a good deal on movies is a wonderful thing. It’s the reason I’ll go out of my way to check in on a Dollar Tree or a Big Lots, in the hopes of finding something worth spending a couple of bucks on. This is a movie that I had heard nothing about, but one that offered me that chance at glory if my $3 gamble were to pay off….
Synopsis: An anti-drug enforcement agency stages a massive drug bust in the slums of Manila.
- Bring me the head of Biggie Chen: The cops in Manila want the Boss Biggie Chen and they want him now. It’s clear by the way they interrogate a criminal and even more clear when we find out that they’re putting a highly trained group of agents on the case. How do we know that they’re highly trained?
- We need a montage: Every movie needs at least one montage and BUYBUST gives it to us in the opening minutes as we meet our team of operatives and learn just a little bit about them between gunshots. Manigan (Anne Curtis) is the tough cop who had recently lost her entire team in a blown-bust after they were ambushed. Yatco (Brandon Vera) is a massive bald dude who is the only one I’m familiar so I’m assuming he’ll be important. Lacson (Victor Neri) is the newly appointed team leader and a man who isn’t looking to make mistakes.
- Snitches get stitches: The team receives a mission to meet up with their informant Teban (Alex Calleja) and catch Biggie Chen in the act. They should have known that this little shantytown doesn’t take kindly to outsiders coming in and causing trouble. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to realize that this baby is going south in a hurry.
- AMBUSH!!!: Yep! Don’t look now but the squad of Filipino badasses are in a seriously messed up situation behind enemy lines and outnumbered. Fans of The Raid will be very much nodding their heads (or shrugging their shoulders like me) as the criminal underworld in the town rise up and start hunting down the no-good Po-lice. How dare they bring all this law and order to their town?!?!
- Street to street: Time to shine BUYBUST! The fighting in this film is easily its best quality. My best explanation would be that the action to BUYBUST is like the tits to Christina Hendricks. I hope that reads the way it sounds in my head. Either way, the fighting is fast and furious-ly ridiculous as guys get shot, stabbed, poked in the eyes, and pummeled within an inch of their lives. You’re gonna love it!
- Tondo Kids: Yatco and Manigan lay down the beating of a lifetime on about 200 people before they finally find themselves holed up in yet another shack. We’re told quickly about the wild ways of the Tondo Kids who ride around on a little motorbike and shoot aimlessly into the night. Once again, it isn’t long before they’re in a knock-down, drag-out war with gargantuan Brandon Vera. Like many of the other fights in the film, this one is brutal and not at all slowed down by the rain and the mud. Instead, it’s probably the first time that Vera gets to pull it all out and give us a really sweet fight. It’s also the only time in the film where someone gorilla press slams a motorbike onto someone. So there’s that… We also get a pretty cool scene of Manigan running along the rooftops like some Filipino lady Batman while she fights off about two dozen people.
- Superhuman: It only takes one look at the above picture to notice that Brandon Vera is freakishly large compared to everyone else. That does come into play as he and Manigan fight their way through the streets like an early 90’s SEGA Genesis game and throws people far enough that they have to dial their watches back an hour. I’m familiar with Vera from his days fighting in various MMA organizations but it sure if fun watching him kick the living dogshit out of a bunch of nameless henchmen.
- Everyone is dirty: Manigan finally drags her badly injured body out of the shantytown with Biggie Chen and walks right into the buzzsaw that is Manila law enforcement. She was set up by one asshole and now her only choice is trust more assholes won’t try to stab her in the back. Well, the other option would be to shoot her way out….there’s always that.
The Verdict: BUYBUST gets a few things wrong but also gets several major things right. Let’s start with the wrong: the runtime is far too long. This film is essentially 2 hours long and a majority of it is just people fighting through streets at night. Cut 20 mins from this film and I guarantee that it’s better. The second problem I had was that Manigan and her team weren’t fleshed out in any way in the first 30 minutes. If you’re gonna give me that much time before the action starts then I should damn-well care about a couple of the characters before the shit hits the fan. The things it does right is much easier. It kills it in the action department. Once the bang bang starts, it never stops. The film takes very few breaks and the actors get to fight it out with guns, knives, bats, and their fists. If there is one negative that comes from the action it is that it all kinda runs together. No matter, the brutal street to street fighting in BUYBUST is what takes this movie from the dollar bin to “Dollar bin must have”. It’s a pure, albeit unoriginal blend of fighting that pays off in the end and gives us more than enough of a muddy, bloody, mess. They’ll tell you it’s a Filipino version of The Raid and that’s not far off.
