Buster Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Charming, lovable... and wanted for the crime of the century!
The greatest train robber of all time.
A Family Man... A Dreamer... A Thief
He'll steal your heart!
Phil Collins is BUSTER
Buster is a small time crook who pulls a big time job. When he finds that the police will not let the case drop, he goes into hiding and can't contact his wife and child. He arranges to meet them in Mexico where he thinks they can begin again, but finds that he must choose between his family and freedom.
| Phil Collins | Buster Edwards |
| Julie Walters | June Edwards |
| Larry Lamb | Bruce Reynolds |
| Stephanie Lawrence | Franny Reynolds |
| Ellie Beaven | Nicky Edwards |
| Michael Attwell | Harry |
| Ralph Brown | Ronny Biggs |
| Christopher Ellison | George |
| Sheila Hancock | Mrs. Rothery |
| Martin Jarvis | Inspector Jack Mitchell |
| Clive Wood | Sergeant Chalmers |
| Anthony Quayle | Sir James McDowell |
| Michael Byrne | Poyser |
| Harold Innocent | Justice Parry |
| Rupert Vansittart | Fairclough |
| David Green |
5.50 out of 10 (820 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Really Popular Movie When Released
posted on 01 May 2008This 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
Phil Collins is the best
posted on 17 Mar 2008Phil Collins isn't only a great drummer and singer, he can act too.He shows that in this film of which he does the soundtracks as well.Phil Collins has doubted about taking this role because he had not a lot of good memories of the series he played in a while. though when the script was written, and the camera's were roling, he did a great job and he enjoyd it as well.in this film you'll see Phil doing a great job, as the filmers of the film said "he pretents that the camera's aren't there, that makes it so nice to work with him" he just acts like he would act if it would really be him. so what you see in this film isn't just Buster, you'll see Phil too sometimes.it is a good story, it's about a train robbery, the biggest ever, in England. Buster is the brain behind the whole thing and everything was planned very well... till they made some mistakes.the story is told very well, but they did added some very romantic things to it. which makes it nicer to watch. the film will make you laugh, and some people will even cry sometimes.I think it is one of the best films ever made! I have seen it as a kid, and I've seen it while crowing up a few times again. I have not recret it for one single moment!kizzz cinderella
Much Better Than Expected.
posted on 30 Nov 2007The 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.
A Towering Central Performance From England's Greatest Living Thespian/MOR Singer/Songwriter/Artful Dodger
posted on 21 Jul 2007Not since Olivier kicked the bucket some time in the 80's has a talent of such obvious majesty graced Britain's thespianic firmament. Phil Collins' performance as Great Train Robber Buster 'Buster' Edwards will surely go down in the annals of movie history when the final chapter of that weighty tome is written.From the moment he throws a brick at a window to steal a suit, to the final shot walking along a bridge with that woman from The Victoria Wood Show, Collins holds the attention of the viewer in a way not seen since De Niro's towering central performance in Taxi Driver. Or Frank Spencer's equally towering performance as 'Frank Spencer' in Condorman.Superb ... can't wait for Buster 2: On The Rocks where he hangs himself in a garage.
Wonderful movie!
posted on 07 May 2007This is one good movie! This is a good movie for Phil Collins fans such as myself. Phil Collins is not only a great singer and drummer, hes also a great actor. This is a good movie to watch on a Friday night if you don't have anything else to do. You won't be sorry.
My first time seeing this film
posted on 12 Feb 2007I think Buster is a great film. Phil Collins and Julie Walters are great. I only seen the film for the first time this week and I really enjoyed it and I will never get board of it. I thought it was great when he was running about with that dummy so he could have the suite for a funeral which he turned up late for and then he stole the flowers. I think they picked the right man to play Buster Edwards and the right women to pay June Edwards. After all that hassle he had and then got sent down for 15 years he was still on about that dream which he left sunny Mexico for foggy cold and dirty old London and for his family and that made it a happy ending. He broke the law but he was a nice robber.
Phil Collins triumphs Against All Odds...
posted on 08 Jun 2006Buster 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.
Buster
posted on 07 Jul 2005I will admit I didn't pay full attention to this film when it was on, but I was interested to see a good singer acting (although apparently he was a child actor). This is the true story of Buster Edwards (Phil Collins), one of the thieves who carried out 1963's Great Train Robbery. He goes into hiding as the police are not letting the case go, and arranges his wife June (Julie Walters) and child Nicky (Ellie Beaven) to meet him in Mexico, along with pal Bruce Reynolds (EastEnders' Larry Lamb). It is obvious his wife isn't very happy with their new life, and Buster must choose between a paradise life and freedom or his family and possibly prison. Also starring Stephanie Lawrence as Franny Reynolds, Michael Attwell as Harry, Cape Wrath's Ralph Brown as Ronald 'Ronnie' Biggs, Christopher Ellison as George, Sheila Hancock as Mrs. Rothery, Martin Jarvis as Inspector Jack Mitchell, Clive Wood as Sergeant Chalmers, Anthony Quayle as Sir James McDowell, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade's Michael Byrne as Poyser, Harold Innocent as Justice Parry, Rupert Vansittart as Fairclough, John Benfield as Jimmy, John Barrard as Walter, Carole Collins as Linda and Amy Shindler as Susan. Collins has made songs I like, including "Against All Odds", "In The Air Tonight" and "You Can't Hurry Love", if I'd paid full attention I might have seen that he does alright. Maybe also that Walters slightly steals the show, but never mind, I saw enough of the really likable Lamb as Collins' pal, and the story looked okay, so I am happy with what I did see for now. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Song for "Two Hearts" (it did win the Golden Globe). Worth watching!
You really can't blame Collins...
posted on 15 Nov 2004Surprisingly dull movie about 'Buster' (played by Collins), one of the great train robbers of 1963. All together they robbed about 2.6 million pounds, of which Buster gets 150,000. Considering the rent of their house is 3 pounds a week... that's a lot of money. But the movie doesn't focus on the robbery itself, but the life after it, with Buster on the run, fleeing to Acapulco (that's Mexico, Buster!). Sounds interesting so far? Well, it ain't! 90% of the movie contains of Buster's wife nagging how she doesn't want to move, how Mexico sucks and that England's great, how they don't speak English here, nagnag whinewhine. When served Chili Con Carne (spicy!) she screams: I want steak and chips! Man, I hated her for that... The movie doesn't have a lot going for it. It's dull, even irritatingly so and is focused on all the wrong things. Collins does what he can and delivers an OK performance (and sings a couple of good songs), but man did he choose the wrong movie to try it on the big screen... 2/10.
a stinker
posted on 27 Dec 2003the main body of this movie is Julie Walters moaning to leave Mexico and wanting to go home to England.The rest seems to be about what a wonderful chap Buster (Phil Collins) was and glosses over the facts of the robbery (and assault).That really is all there is to this piece of garbage.The soundtrack is the only redeeming feature and then only if you were a Phil Collins fan.This film is probably why his acting career didn't do much after this.If you can get this free on the front of a newspaper then by all means watch it but otherwise avoid.
Surprisingly Entertaining
posted on 28 Sep 2003I "boycotted" this film for a long time for two main reasons. Firstly i hate Phil Collins brand of smarmy music, and secondly ,glamourising a nasty crime by paying to see it was morally not something i was prepared to do.Although i stand by my original two points i have to confess that i got it wrong about the film.It is an affectionate retrospective view of Sixties England and has a touch of the "Ealing Studios" about it. The "mechanics" of the robbery are glossed over, and Phil Collins does a pretty competent job " carrying" the film, ably supported by the versatile Julie Walters as his long suffering wife.Crime doesn't pay, the main players get picked up pretty quickly, and those that don't are either getting ripped off themselves or are looking over their shoulder all the time, or both. The period touches are largely sharply observed, the contemporary soundtrack faithful and enjoyable, Collins "Two hearts" and the Four Tops "Acupolco" totally dis-resonant from proceedings.Viewed as a piece of period fiction it is entertaining, pacey, light and humorous.As an insight into the Robbery, Edwards or the gang it is laughable.
Extremely likable film about actual people and events
posted on 20 Jul 2002Buster (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.
"You'll never make it stick without the poppy"
posted on 28 Mar 2002Well,the police did manage to make it stick without the poppy,very little was ever recovered but still a few big time and a lot of small time crims got a lot of bird dished out to them.Of the small time crims Buster Edwards has become a tacky legend thanks to the risible hagiographic movie "Buster",a contender for anyone's Worst Ever list. The big time boys,Roy "The Weasel" James,Douglas "Checker" Goody,Bruce Reynolds caught the headlines,lesser lights like Edwards and Biggs swanked in their reflected glory.Time has scythed down most of the train robbers,but it is aposite to point out that had Jack Mills died within a year and a day of their savage attack on him one or more of them might well have been hanged in accordance with the law at that time. Buster Edwards was nothing like Phil Collins.He was a thief who would have stolen the suit from your back(or your tailor's dummy). Robin Hood he wasn't.His wife June surely can't have been as grotesque as Julie Walters makes her,a Victoria Beckham for the sixties. It's hot in Mexico,not like the elephant at all.......there's a surprise. As I understand it Mrs Edwards was right at the front of the queue when nous was handed out.After her initial delight I'm sure she was appalled to see what a silly woman Miss Walters had turned her into. It must have been tough for Buster lying out there in the sun for all that time whilst all us mugs back in Blighty were breaking our backs to earn a living.My heart bleeds. So a dedicated career thug is turned by a popular singer into a chirpy cheeky cockney geezer wot loves his family and didn't mean anyone any harm.Yeah right. Add a few wishy - washy songs and you have sanitised a decidedly murky character,trivialised his crime and treated him as if he was a naughty puppy.Mix in a few spurious arguments about excessive sentences, government interference with the judiciary etc and you have the British film industry's considered take on one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.Risible indeed.
Very underrated
posted on 28 Mar 2002This 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?)
Great little movie
posted on 09 Jul 2000Just tracked Buster on DVD (for £4 - bargain, or so I thought, more of that later) and gave it a watch today, to be delighted all over again from the last time I saw it, which must have been a few years ago!The film manages to capture the essence of the 60s, and delivers it over to the audience, in a style which I thought was very convincing. Don't listen to your friends when they kick up a fuss about seeing this film because it's got Phil Collins in, ignore it, he can act and does very well in the movie. A mention should also be given to the ever dependable Julie Walters, who yet again gives a solid performance.While on the subject of Julie Walters, I really like the opening scenes in Acapulco (with nice music from Four Tops behind the flying shots over Mexico) as it shows you in an instant that the character of Julie Walters is never going to fit into her environment, as she can be seen wearing dreary colours, a head scalf, thick coat etc and has nothing to match the elegance of the country and it's people. Although Julie Walters can be seen to fit into her forced situation as the scenes in Mexico progress (shown nicely in her choice of clothing I think) you can see she is never really comfortable with it, and her departure back to England was always going to happen.The film also seems to be accurate to the story of the 63 Great Train Robbery, except for two point, the driver of the train (Jack Mills?) wasn't shown to be as serious hurt as he was by the gang, and Buster also slaps his wife in the Mexico market scene, something the real life Buster has been quoted as saying he would never do, or never did such a thing.Still don't let this (or the funny (not haha) ending) overshadow your opinion on the movie, truly is a goodun.Oh and there is a DVD release doing the rounds at the moment, that really is not worth it, as it presents the film in a badly transferred 14:9 image within a 4:3 frame which just looks dull and awful. Go for the proper DVD release in it's glorious 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
So so. The 1963 Great Train Robbery
posted on 04 May 2000I have waited long enough to comment about this film about the 1963 Great Train Robbery. The reconstructed scenarios of the 1960s era are well received and Phil Collins as one of the robbers and flower seller Ronald "Buster" Edwards is quite good while Larry Lamb looks almost strikingly like gang leader Bruce Reynolds in this rather underrated film. Of course, if its underrated then its not hard to understand the reason why. Controversially, the film has been criticised for glorifying this crime on what remains the biggest robbery in criminal history for £2.5 million was a lot for its time. Worst, the train driver Jack Mills sustained head injuries in the ambush attack and never recovered from his ordeal therefore dying six years later from leukaemia. Even so, the robbery served all gang members a lesson for it certainly turned their lives upside down and more than forty years after the robbery, most of them have disappeared just like most of the money and in 1994, a depressed Buster Edwards hanged himself in a disused garage near London's Waterloo Station where he traded as a flower seller.
Buster
posted on 11 Mar 2000Singer Collins stars in this simple film about a thief who successfully pulls off the biggest train robbery in history, who then decides to start a new life in Acapulco with his wife June (Walters). Well matched stars in lovely paced yarn with Oscar nominated tunes from Collins ("Two Hearts").
Separate fact from fiction
posted on 24 Dec 1999A few of the previous reviewers need to separate fact from fiction. Yes the robbery was nasty, as were most of the perpetrators, but the film itself is merely a semi documentary of man's life after the fact, coming to terms with it.Phil Collins plays an admiral Buster, and Julie Walters does well as his long suffering wife.At the end of the day it was an entertaining film with just enough highs and lows, laughs and tears and certainly better made than the other sixties villain flick "The Krays". Do yourself a favour, if somebody ever gives a one star review, look beyond it as they are usually extremely biased.
A Working Class Film About a Thief
posted on 12 Nov 1999Never in a million years would a film about a great train robber be so heartbreaking. I remember seeing Buster in the 80's as it was a film that was played a lot during my childhood but it had been some time since I saw it last when I came across the DVD free in the Sunday newspaper so I was quick to get it and re live some memories. Sadly the only thing I cold remember of the film is the music and I don't just mean the songs written and performed by Phil Collins, the actual score was fantastic and very suited to the movie and is definitely worth remembering. Another shock was how god an actor Phil Collins is. He plays Buster down to a tea and manages to hook you in with his sympathetic but inglorious performance.Buster and his wife June are down on their luck with the life they lead. Buster refuses to go out and make an honest living, he only believes in making money the con artist way and this is where the plan comes together for what would be known later as The Great Train Robbery. Not long after the robbery, the police are on the hunt for all who took part and its not long before they have everyone in their grasp apart from Buster and his partner in crime Bruce. This makes them both flee to Acapulco with June later joining him. The story isn't anything special, its more biographical and just follows what we know about the man himself and it's the starts of the movie Phil Collins and the great Julie Walters that keeps us watching what becomes of these people who we can really relate to.The movie has heartbreaking moments with a Phil Collins catalogue to support it, I don't know how anybody can ever say a bad word about the movie because it is flawless but at the same it isn't a masterpiece either. its just a nice film which is very watch able and makes you feel good in the end.
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Well Made, but Glosses Over the Sordid Details
posted on 24 Jun 2008Possible SpoilersIn August 1963 a gang of London criminals robbed the Glasgow to London mail train and stole about £2,500,000 in used banknotes, in what became known as 'The Great Train Robbery'. This film tells the story of Ronald 'Buster' Edwards, one of the gang- not just his part in the robbery, but also his life on the run afterwards. Although most of his accomplices were quickly arrested, Edwards initially escaped to Mexico, but later returned to Britain where he was imprisoned for fifteen years. The film was advertised under the slogan 'He'll steal your heart', and the character portrayed by Phil Collins is, if not exactly a lovable character, certainly a likable one. Whatever his other faults may be, Edwards is shown as a devoted family man, and the most important relationship in the film is that between him and his wife June. When he goes to Acapulco to live a life of comparative luxury on the proceeds of his crime, June and their young daughter Nicky accompany him. June, however, loathes life in Mexico, where she cannot speak the language and hates the food, and returns to England, taking Nicky with her. Buster is forced to choose between his family and his freedom, as he knows that if he goes back to join them he is likely to be betrayed and arrested. Both the main roles are well played. Phil Collins amply refutes the prejudice that singers cannot act and should not be allowed to try, and he receives excellent support from Julie Walters as the narrow, insular June, quite unable to adapt herself to the culture and lifestyle of any part of the world located more than about two miles from the Elephant and Castle. (For non-British readers, this is a working-class district of South London). There is also a good deal of nostalgic sixties detail- the fashions, the flickering black-and-white televisions, the garish geometrically patterned wallpaper, and the music. (Several pop songs of the era feature on the soundtrack). The Great Train Robbers all received heavy sentences (some of thirty years in jail), and the film suggests that this was as a result of political interference in the judicial process. This may be true- the robbery certainly came as a great embarrassment to Britain's Conservative government. The government prided itself on a strict stance on morality and on law and order, but two months previously it had been involved in a major scandal when one of its senior members, John Profumo, had been forced to resign as a result of sexual impropriety. The punishments doled out to the robbers may have been a way of demonstrating to the nation that the government was winning the fight against crime. Insofar as the film shows that all the robbers were punished for their offence, some possibly more severely than they deserved, it cannot be said to glamorise crime, unlike some fictitious 'heist' movies which show the criminals getting away with it or which, like 'The Italian Job', add an artificially moralistic ending to an otherwise amoral film to keep the censor happy. Nevertheless, I was still unhappy with the way in which some of the aspects of the robbery were treated in 'Buster'. In the actual robbery the train driver, Jack Mills, was beaten over the head and seriously injured when he tried to resist the robbers. This incident is omitted from the film. Buster complains that he and his accomplices have been treated more harshly than Profumo was 'for sleeping with a tart who gave all our secrets to the Russians', implying that the authorities are more lenient towards upper-class wrongdoers than towards working-class ones. (In fact, Profumo was not charged with any criminal offence, and neither he nor his mistress Christine Keeler was ever involved in espionage). The Great Train Robbers may not have been engaged in an 'act of organised banditry' or 'warfare against the community' (as a judge said about them in a fine example of judicial hyperbole), but neither were they working-class heroes putting one over on the establishment, as the film likes to imply. They were simply petty criminals who got lucky and pulled off a big one.The fictitious Buster Edwards as portrayed by Phil Collins might have been capable of stealing hearts, but I doubt if his real-life counterpart was quite so engaging. 'Buster' may not glamorise the life of the criminal but it does, I feel, gloss over the more sordid aspects of a real-life crime story by turning it into a romantic comedy. As I watched it I felt that if June had really loved Buster she would have tried harder to overcome her aversion to eating chilli con carne rather than fish and chips. And if he had really loved her he would have found a more honest way of earning his living. 7/10