Some movie DVDs and videos have been watched by me almost as soon as I've bought them, whereas various others have lingered unwatched for longer – sometimes much longer. In the case of the movie under review here today, I've owned it in ex-rental big box video format for over 30 years without ever having viewed it – until recently, that is, when I finally got around to doing so. And the title of this long-neglected movie? Busted Up (also released retitled as Killing Town).
Directed by Conrad E. Palmisano, co-produced and written by Damian Lee (who loosely based it upon his own real-life experiences as a bare knuckle boxer in Peru before becoming involved in film-making), and released in 1986 by Rose & Ruby, Busted Up has as its central character one Earl Bird (played by Paul Coufos). Earl is a former jailbird but now a totally reformed and rehabilitated local hero, who not only owns with his best buddy Angie (Stan Shaw) a much-loved gym in the heart of their downtown backstreet neighbourhood (in an unnamed American urban location) but also is a very skilled boxer, of both the gloved and the bare knuckle variety.
Furthermore, Earl is a single parent to his young daughter Sara after girlfriend Simone (Irene Cara) walked out on them, seeking fame and fortune as a singer in the bright lights. However, that didn't work out, so now she is back, singing in sleazy bars instead, and intent upon reclaiming Sara. But this is far from being Earl's only problem needing to be dealt with by him.
Local mobster Irving Drayton (Tony Rosato) has been hired by some seriously unscrupulous real-estate wheeler-dealers to purchase all the properties in Earl's neighbourhood, so that they can be flattened and a shiny new complex built in their stead, and to do whatever it takes to rid these properties of their tenants and owners if they won't sell and move out quickly and quietly.
But after Earl and Angie refuse to sell the gym, and made swiftly aware of Earl's fighting prowess when he readily beats up all of his heavies into abject submission, Drayton offers Earl a serious challenge instead.
One of Earl's friends had reluctantly sold to Drayton the greengrocer store that he and his father before him had owned and worked in all their lives. So the deal proposed is that Earl fights a champion hand-picked by Drayton. If Earl loses, Drayton keeps the greengrocer store and also takes the gym, but if Earl wins he keeps the gym and also takes back his friend's store. There is one other condition, however – in addition to the businesses, Earl and Drayton must each put up a cash prize of $25,000.
That is not a problem for Drayton, because this is the sum that the wheeler-dealers have paid him in advance for his services. But as Earl and Angie do not have that kind of money going spare, it means that Earl will have to raise it by entering bare knuckle bouts in the hopes of winning it. But in so doing, he risks injuring himself before the bout with Drayton's champion (something that Drayton is counting upon happening).
And speaking of his champion: Drayton calls upon the services of a feral man-mountain just released from jail on parole, a certain Tony Tenera (Gord Judges), who just so happens to nurture a blind, unfettered hatred for Earl following a ferocious physical confrontation when they were in jail together. So this will be a grudge match in every sense.
After reconciling with Simone, and finally accumulating the necessary $25,000 without doing damage to himself, Earl is all set for the big fight with Tenera. Then, that same day, he is tricked into a back-alley confrontation with Drayton's entire gang of thugs who beat him up so badly with iron bars that it seems unlikely he will be in a fit state even to tackle Tenera that evening, let alone emerge triumphant. Thanks to Angie's skills in recuperative treatment, however, Earl enters the ring and prepares to do battle, but will his still-weakened state let him down, or will he rise like a resurrected Rocky phoenix and demolish Tenera, saving the day for himself, for the gym, and for all his friends in the neighbourhood? Take a wild guess!
Busted Up is a somewhat formulaic but nonetheless very watchable underdog-comes-good sport-themed action movie, with a very likeable character in Earl whom you readily root for throughout the film, plus an unequivocally (and literally!) no-punches-pulled performance from Coufos playing him. Although Cara is top-billed in the movie's opening credits (and second-billed in the closing ones, oddly), as Simone she plays little more than a supporting character (though she does get to sing some songs), with Coufos's Earl, Shaw's Angie, Rosato's Drayton, and Frank Pellegrino's Nicky (providing some much-needed comedy relief among all the blood and beatings as a longstanding yet less than trustworthy friend of Earl and Angie) sharing the principal acting honours.
So, was Busted Up worth its 30-year wait to be watched by me? Bearing in mind that it's from a film genre – sport – that I rarely watch (martial arts excepted), and that I only bought it on the strength of its two lead stars, Coufos and Cara, I think so, yes. It engaged my attention, made me care about the good guys, and wish bad things upon the bad guys – what more can you ask for from an action movie?
If you'd like to view an official Busted Up trailer on YouTube, be sure to click here. Moreover, at the time of my posting this review of it on Shuker In MovieLand, you can watch this entire film free of charge on YouTube by clicking here – so be sure to take the opportunity to do so while you can.
Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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