A two-hour burst of kinetic violence is leavened with a sprinkle of political commentary in Filipino director Erik Matti’s brutal but viscerally exciting crime drama, in which a battalion of Manila police are trapped in a maze-like slum after a raid against a drug gang goes terribly wrong. The assault, planned from information provided by a tortured informant, is the first that Nina (Anne Curtis), sole survivor of an earlier disastrous mission, is undertaking with her new drug-enforcement squad. The object is to take down boss Biggie Chen (Arjo Atayde) and his mob, but—unfortunately—Chen’s cruel lieutenant Chongki (Levi Ignacio) perceives the danger and orders a full counterattack. A pulse-pounding melee ensues, during which the cops are systematically wiped out until only Nina and beefy Rico (Brandon Vera) are left fighting, and in the end Nina will have to face off alone against Chen, who administers a savage beating while taunting her with claims that the police force itself is riddled with corruption. All of this is fairly familiar territory, but Matti adds a twist in the hostility of the locals to the cops, who are considered no less dangerous than the hoodlums—an obvious allusion to the take-no-prisoners approach that the regime of Rodrigo Duterte has adopted towards small-time pushers in the Philippines. BuyBust works as a simple explosion of bloody, gun-fueled action in the mold of the Indonesian Raid movies, but the contemporary political subtext gives it additional punch. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)
BuyBust
Well Go USA, 127 min., in Filipino w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $24.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $29.99, Oct. 16 Volume 34, Issue 1
BuyBust
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