Watch Busting For Free

Thanks for the memories!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Directed by Peter Hyams, Busting apparently inspired the television show Starsky & Hutch. It was released at a similar time as Freebie and the Bean which was commercially more successful but Busting is more tighter, coherent and cynical picture that still retains elements of its comedy.Keneely (Elliott Gould) tall, laconic and chews gum all the time and Farrel (Robert Blake) shorter and tougher are two LA vice cops who spend most of their time arresting hookers and people in gay bars rather than than the big crime lords who they feel are being protected by their superior officers and cynical lawyers.They decide to go all out to catch the local crime lord Rizzo (Allen Garfield) which annoys their superiors who prefer they go after the small fry.The film has a comedic and anarchic tone but beneath the cynicism it also has a heart of two cops trying to do the right thing and not happy with just fitting up hookers and their clients.There are thrills as well with well staged shootout sequences in a market and later in a hospital. The film is a softer and sarcastic edged version of The French Connection featuring elements of a buddy cop duo and a message that crime does pay.

Elliott Gould and Robert Blake are a surprisingly affable team in this blood-spattered crime-flick written and directed by Peter Hyams, which stays loose and shaggy and doesn't wrap itself up too much in seriousness or pretensions (until the finale). Two Los Angeles vice cops, tired of seeing their prize busts going unrewarded by a police commissioner who is on the take from a sleazy crime czar, use their down-time to shake up the kingpin, whom they are sure is about to pull off a major drug exchange. The leads are a lot of fun, particularly Gould, and Hyams keeps the camera moving-moving-moving until you feel convinced he must have his cinematographer strapped to the back of a motorcycle. There are the usual cheap shots, titillation asides, a blatantly moronic judge, and the proverbial exasperated sergeant who keeps saying things like, "My ass will be in a sling!" Hyams is really tough on Los Angeles, and one might come away from the picture asking: if the police force were so corrupt, wouldn't that be a bigger story than the one we're getting? Still, the combination of good performances, an interesting script, a goofy undermining, and a down-and-dirty scenario makes the movie a rowdy ride with exciting sequences. **1/2 from ****

I was watching a re-run of this one the other day and although I remembered I had seen it before, couldn't help noticing how fresh it still is. This one will surely ruin some fantasies as to what police work really entails, and while over thirty years old, it's quite hard-hitting action-wise,-the one shot down the corridor and staircase-chase scene into the market be testimony, but also extremely dark and complex for this genre in character-development and attention to detail - the crummy apartment scene (loved the ugly cap and crying neighbor's baby - touch), the "how do you spell Rizzo?" -writing on the toilet wall scene, the "Shezam"-scene...and so on. Also the movie score of a time where each movie had a personalized theme other than who knows who's latest MTV hit. Along with "The French Connection", "Cruising" or "To live and die in L.A", this is one of the best character-study of cops ever made by American cinema. And somehow they made it without the explosions and big budget demolition or the inter-racial partner buddy-buddy, always joking, driving Porsche, kissing the supermodel routine, but also without losing humor- the slow-dance in the fag-joint -for instance. Instead they used a little thing called talent and inspiration. Elliott Gould is in top form in this one as ever and really works well with Robert Blake.While extremely entertaining action-wise, it also raises some fair questions, like - why do they do it? or -what to do when you know you can't change anything? it doesn't preach and remains extremely human until the end.

Elliott Gould ("MASH", 'E/R', etc..) and Rob Blake ( "Baretta", murdering scumbag, etc..) are two vice cops whom after losing a prostitute's bust (pun intended) thanks to her knowing the right people, and geting slapped, bitten, and hair-pulled in a gay bar, decide to go after made-man Rizzo (the boss of Mother, Jugs & Speed himself, Allen Garfield). Pretty much your typical '70's cop action yarn, but the chance to see the great Sid Haig in action, even in a minor part, is always great. And seeing Fat Rolly, I'm sorry I mean Micheal Lerner, I've been watching too much Starsky & Hutch reruns, as a seedy owner of a porn shop is fun as well.Where I saw It: Showtime ExtremeMy Grade:B-Eye Candy: Jackie (Cornelia Sharpe-breasts and Buns), unknown erotic dancer shows breasts and buns as wellBest Line: "Hey mom, hey dad, how're you? I'm fine, a fag bit my leg"- Elliott Gould