Buster (1988) Reviews

• Very underrated

  stupido23062003-01-28

  This movie is simply beautiful. The performance by Phil Collins, the music - everything here is excellent. The end is unbelievable (it's a true story) - only a man with a very big heart could do that (if you want to know what, go and rent a movie - you will not regret it). I highly recommend it 10/10. P.S.: I can't believe that only less than 300 people voted for this movie (did noone see it?)

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• Extremely likable film about actual people and events

  inkblot112006-12-09

  Buster (Phil Collins) is a petty thief with some skill. If he wants a new suit, he just breaks a store window and makes off with a mannequin. If the baby needs supplies, Buster sneaks into the chemist's at night and picks out what is needed. His wife June is getting a bit tired of this and would love to have a place of their own, not a rental. Therefore, Buster arranges a major train robbery (THE Great Train Robbery in the early sixties). The plot is almost successful but Buster does not remain anonymous and is a hunted man, post robbery. Will he ever see his family again? This is a very likable movie about an unlikely charmer. Buster does not want an honest job to support his family but one just can not help liking the guy. Collins is quite good as this amusing thief. Julie Walters, as his wife, is also sweet and attractive. The plot is amazing when one realizes these events actually took place. Part love story, part cat and mouse game, this film is a fun view. Anyone who sits down to Buster will be laughing in short order, leaving the sometimes somber world behind.

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• Phil Collins triumphs Against All Odds...

  junkie_marrow2006-06-07

  Buster is possibly Phil 'The Brusier' Collins' finest ever moment. The film itself is a roller-coaster ride from comedy to emotion. The film, in places is dreary and sluggish, however a tour de force performance by Collins makes up for its shortcomings. The film could be improved with additional musical accompaniment from the 'bruiser'as only 'two hearts' stands out. The supporting cast is not up to Phil's acting standards. Julie Walters is particularly annoying. But seriously this film should rank alongside The Great Escape and Flashdance as a classic Sunday afternoon film. In fact it is as important as the dinner that precedes it.

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• Much Better Than Expected.

  screenman2009-07-30

  The idea of chart-topping 'Genesis' front-man Phil Collins playing the role of notorious east-end Great Train Robber 'Buster' Edwards was enough to put me off this movie for life. I didn't see it until many years after its release, and only then by accident on television. I have to say that I owe Mr Collins an apology. If he'd not had so much previous form in the pop-charts I'd have hardly recognised him. The so-called Great Train Robbery was the most audacious and successful crime-caper carried out by the biggest team of amateurs in British Criminal history. It naturally suited the authorities of the day to hype them up as a cunning, ruthless brigade of experts, because it helped draw a veil over their own lax security, and profound political embarrassment that the heist engendered. Compared to the vicious, homicidal scumbags of today, these guys were little more than a bunch of chancers. Notorious Big-Man Ronnie Biggs was only involved by invitation as an afterthought. He was a tradesman, but this job offered more. It's a low-key representation of the crime which, I suspect, more aptly represents the bumbling, uneducated behaviour of those involved, who simply got very lucky, and then became extremely notorious. Collins excels as the working-class wideboy, getting in far too deep and never stopping to consider the broader implications of stopping one of Her Majesty's Mail trains, and stealing millions of pounds. His confusion and inability to contend with the juggernaut that follows is entirely believable. Likewise Julie Walters as his long-suffering but doting moll of a wife, torn between what the proceeds could offer and her hankering for an ordinary, stable family life. The culture clash in Mexico is perfectly realised. Untravelled and untutored English homebodies who have never done anything more exotic than pick winkles on Southend Pier, suddenly find themselves in a hot, tropical paradise that actually proves to be anything but. They can't have the food and drink they grew up with. Everything is 'foreign'. They don't\understand the language, the currency; they're confused by everything and everyone. Like true Brits abroad; they don't adapt well. His wife is first to crack, transported away from all of her family and friends, the familiar if drab neighbourhoods that now seem like heaven. The culture-clash is finally shattered open when one of their children sickens and they have no idea what to do or say. They can make no sense of the hospital. Their anxiety and confusion is an object-lesson. For 'er-indoors'; it's the last straw. Eventually, stricken with home-sickness and with finances depleted; Edwards goes back to face the music. The establishment will show no mercy. It's a blatant miscarriage of justice. But it was not the first, nor would it be the last. We finally see him at his flower stall, much older and little wiser. Edwards was a hapless nobody, a small-time criminal prospector who hit paydirt. The Robbery was the second biggest thing he experienced because it changed his life. His wretched suicide much later was the biggest, because that ended it. It's a movie that I found thoroughly entertaining against all expectations, and won over a deeply-held prejudice about popstars taking to an acting career, and using their singing status to leapfrog undiscovered strugglers.

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• Really Popular Movie When Released

  retrogames2005-01-05

  This movie was a big hit at the cinema when it was first released and then again as a video rental....Those were the days! The soundtrack was also a big hit and most of the songs were chart hits on the back of the movie, and not just the Phil Collins songs who was at the height of his popularity as a solo artist at the time. The story and movie itself is far from being as bad as some of the reviews here make out, its an upbeat movie for the most part and still watchable. Phil Colins can act, although he hasn't really had the chance to show that in very many roles since. The fact that you could pick this movie up free on DVD recently with a newspaper and if you missed that offer can pop into any Poundland in the UK and pick it up for a pound (on a double bill with Diamond of Jeru) I'd recommend you looking it up...even only if its to hear that great soundtrack again..5/10

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