They need a woman to save the day!
An elite squad is sent to the worst slum in Manila to arrest a drug lord. But they have been tricked, and now they are trapped in the slum where both the minions of the drug lord and those who live there are out to kill them. Now they need a strong female who can save the day! And the question is, who has betrayed them?
This is a Filipino version of The Raid movies. But BuyBust is much tamer, although it’s impressive to see how many people are killed. John Rambo is probably proud of how many people they kill in this movie. So we give a thumb up for that. Let’s say it feels like around 150 people are killed, that’s impressive! And you feel trapped in this slum that someone should bomb to hell. What a disgusting shithole!
But that’s the only positive thing I have to say about BuyBust! The characters are empty, and none of the actors impress. We follow a bunch of blank sheets. They are devoid of charisma, and you don’t know who they are. So why should we care about them? Movies like this only get worse and worse at that point. Why aren’t today’s action heroes as charming as the action heroes from the 80s?
Although it’s impressive to see how many people are killed, the action scenes are disappointing. Firearms, knives, and martial arts are used during the action scenes. The problem is that it looks so tame. You can see that the actors and stuntpeople are afraid to touch each other. Where’s Donnie Yen who pays stuntmen to be knocked out in real life?
But I liked the use of knives, although I think some characters tolerated too many stab wounds. We aren’t talking about one or two stab wounds. There are many stab wounds, and some characters continue to fight for their life after someone has stabbed them many times. That takes you out of the movie.
BuyBust brings out the feeling of being in the slums, and it has a kind of raw animal energy when there are so many people who die. But the action scenes where the actors and stuntpeople are trying to impress us are not good. The action choreography doesn’t work. It’s not nice to look at actors and stuntpeople who wait for their turn to attack. That means that the action choreography is bad. They look amateurs when they fight, and there’s not enough power behind punches and kicks.