Busting

It's probably ill advised to describe a movie called Busting as being seedy.

Everyone calm down it’s the 70s I’m pretty sure they’ll show homosexuals and transgender people as huma-oh ... nevermind.

Some parts are great and there is a general feeling of dirtiness throughout the film. Gould especially looked scuzzy. The partner was kind of bland. The bad guy wasn't that threatening except in one instance when they set up a trap for Gould (but why didn't they kill him?). Fav scene: market shootout and chase.

Hyams is probably the only director who knew how to use Gould other than Altman, and he puts his laconic charm to good use in Busting, his theatrical feature debut. It suffers from a relatively weak performance by Blake as Gould's partner--imagine if Falk was cast in the role?--and Hyam's plot is purely perfunctory, but it has a scrappy, shaggy dog quality that was central to the appeal of so many New Hollywood films about institutional corruption despite not really excelling in any department.

A cop show encapsulated, purely episodic as 2 vice cops team on assorted cases, with unstable degrees of success. It's in keeping with the refreshing realism of this period in the film's genre. Were the production not as befuddled and awkward, this rather poorly titled actioner could easily rank among the two French Connections, Bullitt and the Dirty Harry series.

gould and blake as cops who try to uphold the law when a bunch of dirty cops and bureaucracy get in their way at every turn. the frustration is tangible and it could have been decent, but the writing here only shines in spots. there are better movies of the genre out of the 70's, hell some of them even have gould starring. watch the long goodbye instead.

This film is very much a movie of the 1970's, It has a few good moments but overall it does not seem to really go any where. The cast tries there best with the material but the script could have been better. Overall this film is disappointing.

Viewed March 24, 2021.

It's kind of uncomfortable that the vice cops - who entrap, extort, commit breaking-and-entering and harassment (including setting a car on fire) - are portrayed as victims of the corrupt system.

Kind of a let down after having seen The Long Goodbye (which is one of my all time favorites). Acting is good, but the screenplay could have been a bit more expansive, and it could have benefited from better directing. Still, its worth seeing if you're a fan of the genre and/or Elliot Gould.