Movie Review: BuyBust

BuyBust looked set to be a good one. It had a seemingly relevant narrative with a solid setup that at one point, I genuinely felt like we had a wonderfully gritty and realistic action film on our hands. Then, things fell apart. 

It threw away proper pacing and plot in exchange for non-stop senseless and aimless action set pieces. Not only were the fight scenes gratuitously plentiful and contrived, but each scene went on and on and on - they almost seemed unending. By then, the plot was gone, the fight scenes carried the film, and the overall experience felt disappointingly empty. Sure, it did try to pull all loose ends together towards the end, but the (contradicting) assertion the film was trying to make was already lost with all the mayhem.

Don't get me wrong. It had some redeeming qualities - the production was really good, the action sequences and choreography were creative providing interesting angles and fight tactics, which kept some of the hand-to-hand combat impressively kinetic, that one long continuous action sequence was executed impeccably, and the performances, for the most part, were admirable - Anne Curtis was inconsistent albeit undeniably badass - but the film was just heavily flawed.

BuyBust had so much promise, some were fully realized, while others completely wasted. Watch with caution as it can get really brutal and exhausting.