Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

BuyBust Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 22, 2018

BuyBust is one of the rare Well Go USA Blu-ray releases that contains some significant bonus material (detailed below in the Supplements section of the review), and one of the extras is a more or less thirty minute “making of” piece which contains some interesting interviews with co- writer and director Erik Matti. Matti mentions in one of these interviews how the spark of the idea for BuyBust was actually ignited when Matti was working on another film, and he and his crew found themselves in a potentially dangerous public place that had no easy egress, and Matti started wondering how the heck he and his assembled multitudes were going to get out of there if chaos ensued. In this particular case, the “trapped” people are Drug Enforcement Agents in the Philippines who attempt to infiltrate a so-called barangay in Manila, only to find themselves in what amounts to a labyrinth from which it is more or less impossible to escape. BuyBust has a visceral intensity that is rare for even typically adrenaline fueled films in “drug war” subgenres, though it fritters away some of its momentum with a presentational style that favors “shaky cam” theatrics, as well as a certain tendency to revisit action set pieces which tend to blend into one another after a while.

In our relatively recent The Official Story Blu-ray review I mentioned how Argentina’s fractious history may not be that well known to some folks from a bit further north, and I suspect that same situation will be true, at least for some viewers, with regard to what was evidently a major attempt by ruthless Philippine president (or dictator, depending on your point of view) Rodrigo Duterte to tamp down rampant substance abuse in his country. A “war on drugs” would seem to be a noble effort on its face, but BuyBust invests an already roiling sociopolitical climate with depictions of overt corruption that extends not just to drug dealers, but perhaps to those trying to police them. It’s an unsettling thesis, and one that provides BuyBust with quite a bit of energy.

As star Anne Curtis mentions in the same “making of” featurette discussed above, very little background information on any of the major characters is given, and instead the film plops the viewer down in a tempestuous atmosphere where new Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency recruit Nina Manigan (Anne Curtis) is seen training for an expected showdown, as well as being pretty viciously “quizzed” about her loyalty to her commanding officer. The film has already detailed a violent questioning of a dealer named Teban (Alex Calleja), who is being subjected to a “good cop/bad cop” interview where an agent named Dela Cruz (Lao Rodriguez) comes off as the “good cop”. A major domo in the drug world named Biggie Chen (Arjo Atayde) is the prime objective, and Cruz and his “bad cop” acolyte think Teban can lead them to him. Perhaps expectedly, things go awry, leading to two “teams” of Drug Enforcement Agents having to penetrate a walled off slum inside Manila, a place that has allegedly been deemed “drug free” and is called a “blue zone”. Needless to say, things are not as “drug free” as authorities would have folks believe.

One of the few elements of Nina’s past that is at least alluded to is the fact that she has survived a bout of rampant police corruption already, something that perhaps gives some “context” to her superior Bernie Lacson (Victor Neri) making sure she’s going to stay loyal. Once things move into the “barrio”, loyalties are of course tested, but one of the most disturbing elements in BuyBust is that it becomes obvious that it’s probably best not to trust anyone — superior or otherwise. One team is almost immediately wiped out, with one notable exception, while Nina and her cohorts attempt to deal with a populace that is sick of both the illicit drug trade afflicting their already downtrodden neighborhood, but also the police presence, which is seen as overly oppressive. To say that “all hell breaks loose” is probably an understatement, especially since the dilapidated confines where most of BuyBust takes place may seem awfully close to “hell on earth” itself.

BuyBust’s narrative is fraught with duplicity and subterfuge, even as Biggie Chen remains a somewhat elusive target, at least for the early going of the film. With an alarmingly high attrition rate of both police and dealers (and the occasional more or less innocent bystander), the cast of characters understandably whittles down as the story progresses, with a really interesting trio left standing (or at least sitting) as the tale comes to a violent close. BuyBust seems to suggest that there are structural issues at play in the Philippines that might make any “war on drugs” devolve into what’s been called a circular firing squad.

BuyBust Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

BuyBust is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I haven't been able to track down any authoritative technical data on this film, but it has the typical sleek and sharp appearance of digital capture, which I assume was finished at a 2K DI. As can perhaps be gleaned from some of the screenshots accompanying the review, things tend to get downright psychedelic at times, with whole sequences bathed in tones of green, red and blue. Those choices, combined with the aforementioned "shaky cam" aesthetic, can lead to a loss of fine detail at times, though commendably when cameras are a bit more stable even in less than optimal lighting things improve considerably. Some of the outdoor material pops rather well, despite a kind of slate gray grading. This film has an almost appalling number of people shot through their heads, and some of the close-ups are on the disturbing side. As can be seen in screenshot 19, there's also a "countdown" clock of sorts that run interstitially between selected scenes. Aside from the typical bugaboo on some production mastheads that seems to be unavoidable on a lot of Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, there isn't any major banding to complain about on this release.

BuyBust Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

BuyBust contains extremely forceful DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes ostensibly in either Filipino or English, but with the Filipino track itself often lapsing in and out of English at a moment's notice (some characters will spout some of their dialogue in Filipino and other parts of that same dialogue in English, kind of interestingly). I noticed no real difference in amplitude or overall mix between the two languages. The film is awash in LFE, both courtesy of sound effects and some washes of what sounds like synth pads, and there are some extremely effective pans with regard to these elements. The cacophony of the slum the PDEA forces find themselves trapped in also provide a glut of consistent surround activity. While some dialogue snippets tend to get just slightly lost in the sonic chaos, the overall mix is extremely aggressive and rather impressive a lot of the time.

Note: As this review is going live, our database specs need to be updated, but there is also a Filipino Dolby Digital 2.0 track on this disc, for the record.

BuyBust Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (1080p; 30:16) has a lot of behind the scenes footage, as well as quite a few interviews. The interviews are subtitled despite being in English, I presume because someone thought accents might be heavy at times, but I personally had on problem understanding anyone.


• Comic Con Panel (1080i; 27:09) includes Brandon Vera and Erik Matta, along with a bunch of other folks who don't seem to have anything to do with BuyBust.


• U.S. Trailer (1080p; 2:00)


• Teaser Trailer (1080p; 00:55)


• International Trailer (1080p; 3:33)

Note: As is usual for Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the supplements have been authored to follow one another automatically. After the last trailer for this film plays, the disc is authored to move on automatically to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those other trailers also play automatically at disc boot up.

BuyBust Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

BuyBust is often explosively visceral, and it manages to work in a rather fascinating sociopolitical element that is often missing from action thrillers. The story is downright disturbing, and often graphically violent, but for those willing to wade through the morass of gunshots and hand to hand combat, the underlying issues are provocative and well handled. Technical merits, especially audio, are strong, and BuyBust comes Recommended.