Bushwick

This film tells the story of a young woman and a military veteran, who are stranded in a city where insurgent forces heavily attack, with the aim of succession from the USA.

"Bushwick is surprisingly good considering it is a low budget film. The plot is good, there is a lot of action and thrill throughout the film. It wastes no time in introducing the intense gunfights int he city, making New York like a war zone. The camera work is great, as there are a lot of long continuous shots of fighting and escaping scenes which I am sure are challenging to stage. The main characters are likable, and I just really hope that they can get out of the highly dangerous situation. I enjoyed watching "Bushwick", I thought it was surprisingly thrilling and captivating.

Like others, I heard about the film because Aesop Rock posted on Facebook saying he was doing the score. So I wasn't expecting much beyond a cool soundtrack...

From the first scene, it's apparent that winning an Oscar isn't the top priority. The dialogue isn't fluent and the acting is stunted, and we're thrown in with the action almost right away: streets are burning, we don't know why, let's get the hell out of here. The top priority, it seems, is creating a video game-like war-torn corner of NYC through which the protagonists must try and survive. And it does this well.

It only took a few minutes for me to start honestly enjoying it. The main driving force is the perspective: a single hand-held camera doing long continuous takes, so the whole movie, having been edited to cut different takes seamlessly together, runs like an entire 90 minute one-shot. It makes you feel as if you're there with them, experiencing the action unfold, no tea break, and the ridiculous plot and forced acting combine to make it feel like you've stepped directly into a '90s B-movie or a shoot'em up arcade game set in Brooklyn. It's really pretty cool, and almost makes me think that the silly plot and acting were intentional. Maybe, maybe not.

If you're looking for a political thriller, a thinking man's action movie, cool martial arts/fight scenes, or any amount of emotional realism, look elsewhere. But if you're happy with a mindless yet oddly engrossing bang bang movie, this might be fun.

Let's be honest here, this movie will never win an Oscar and neither will the two actors, the plot is ridiculous, the acting poor and you find it hard to make out what the lead male is saying half the time.

All that said, it actually works like a video game with the viewer right there in the middle of the action and you actually start liking and wanting the two main players to succeed in their task - its pretty intense and the action never stops and surprisingly, I actually started to enjoy the movie - one of the more enjoyable movies I have seen recently. I would rate more of a 7.5/10 but will go for the higher 8 on the IMDb rating system because I did enjoy it, as stupid as it is!

Dave Bautista steps down from the blockbusters to lead this tense thriller about a country torn apart and a new civil war beginning.

The opening scene showed such promise, I was gripped immediately but within 15-20 minutes my hopes were dashed.

I couldn't get over how poor everything looked, considering Bautista is on the upswing of his career I expected him to be more careful with his roles. The sfx are oddly weak and the camera work is some of the shoddiest I've ever seen considering the films budget. Seriously, at one point I think the camera goes up Daves ass while following him.

Though the concept is a bit far fetched I think considering the current state of the US at time of writing this or something similar is more realistic than most want to admit.

Sadly as mentioned the film falls apart early and it descended into yet another action flick with little going for it.

Bautista has done nothing to silence his critics here as he puts in arguably his worst performance yet.

This film is the very definition of potential squandered, it should have been SO much better.

The Good:

Fantastic opening sequence

The Bad:

Very poorly shot

Shoddy sfx

Soundtrack doesn't fit

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Such a far fetched plot being believable at this time is genuinely scary

I couldn't take the Jewish gang seriously

If "Bushwick" had been shot in a traditional way, I would have given it 6 stars. The story - a survival tale - has been done many times before, and is nothing to write home about.

The use of steady cam is, however. 'Bushwick' is one long continuous shot, where you don't notice the cuts (much like 'Birdman'). You are taken right into the action. There's no shakycam, no quick editing, just a camera constantly hovering beside, in front of and in the back of the action. How refreshing.

I wish that more movies were shot like this.