BuyBust
Viva Films | Release Date: August 10, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistBradley WarrenAug 8, 2018
The world of the film is bracingly immediate and constantly overflowing—dubious sound design or a shift in image quality, while glaring, can’t puncture the holistic nightmare of Matti’s vision. Read full review
90
Screen DailyJohn BerraJul 19, 2018
As much as BuyBust seems to be engineered for maximum excitement, it’s not without the complexities that are typical of Matti’s ambitious genre pieces. Read full review
90
VarietyRichard KuipersJul 16, 2018
BuyBust is a superbly executed action film about drug squad members fighting for their lives in a maze-like Manila slum that resembles nothing less than hell on earth. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterClarence TsuiAug 9, 2018
The veteran Philippine genre-meister's ultraviolent action blockbuster goes beyond easy moral binaries to highlight how Duterte's warped worldview has made monsters out of everyone from the police to the peddlers to the ordinary people in between, all of them doing the bloody bidding of a corrupt political class. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 9, 2018
Wrapping a political-corruption yarn in a blanket of bullets and blood, the Filipino director and co-writer, Erik Matti, slides visual and textual jokes into the mayhem in ways both sly and blatant. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshAug 9, 2018
In the cynical worldview of BuyBust, there’s no escaping this crushing cycle of killing and corruption. That real-life message makes this wild action film more powerful, but the violence is a hard pill to swallow. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 31, 2018
BuyBust is brimming with life, furiously protected and furiously taken, a bracing introduction of Matti and Filipino cinema to the world. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKaren HanAug 9, 2018
Though the film becomes a slog, it has a saving grace in Curtis and Vera’s performances, which serve as neat complements to each other in temperament as well as fighting styles. Read full review
50
The Film StageJared MobarakJul 23, 2018
Add a surprisingly talkie ending that tries to walk back the no-holds-barred bloodshed for the revelation of a secret I honestly didn’t care about anymore and I found myself fatigued rather than excited. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsAug 10, 2018
So often bogged down by pseudo-naturalistic long takes and generic cop/robber power dynamics that it makes one wonder what the point of watching such a film is. Read full review
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