MANILA – The new movie “BuyBust” starring Anne Curtis received praise from Screen Daily, an online magazine that covers the international film scene.

In his review published Monday after the Erik Matti-directed movie was screened as the closing film of the New York Asian Film Festival, John Berra of Screen Daily described “BuyBust” as “brazenly cynical and brilliantly executed.”

“Filipino genre pioneer Erik Matti has delivered one of the most blistering action pictures since ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015) on a fraction of George Miller’s blockbuster budget,” Berra wrote.

“Once the bullets start flying, Matti ratchets up the intensity with increasingly elaborate, superbly choreographed fights in close quarters or on rickety rooftops,” he added.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

The performances of the film’s stars – Curtis and mixed martial artist Brandon Vera – were also commended for giving “BuyBust” a “vital human quality.”

“Curtis anchors the mayhem with great charisma, forming a terrific partnership with the stoic Vera, whose towering frame and tank-like indestructibility are offset by a resolutely calm manner,” Berra wrote.

Hours before its world premiere, Matti took to social media to express his thoughts about the film.

A post shared by erikmatti (@erikmatti) on Jul 15, 2018 at 3:08pm PDT

"It’s time to let go now. This film is no longer ours and it’s now for the audience to experience. It took two years of our lives. Two years of living through its story, characters and the film itself," he said in a lengthy post.

"Time tested all of the cast and crew on this. Never found this bunch that cared so much to the film we’ve put together. Egos were set aside in the service of the film. This film showed me how films should be made. It should be made collectively by passionate people who are all doing their damn best to help tell the story in any way we can.

"We never did the extra mile mainly because we’re thinking the project was special. We did the extra mile because that’s how movies should be made. Movies should go beyond just being professional. It should be about being passionate with the story we want to tell and doing everything we can to put it together in the best way possible.

"I know this sounds too idealistic being in an industry where everyone seems to be always in a daze moving from one project to the next not knowing which is which but I am really really grateful to have put together this bunch of serious fun sensitive positive resourceful caring bunch of film workers," he wrote.

“BuyBust” will be released in the United States through the Asian genre specialists Well Go.

It will premiere in Philippine cinemas on August 1, and will be streamed on Netflix starting November 1.