Players

Italian Job, an action thriller which was remake in 2003 now in Indian accent again in 2012 by Bollywood and it was seriously a waste of money time and energy. I wish they would have kept the way it was, unnecessary twists, unrealistic stunts and proud gesture by actors showing that they know about the future as they are going to win anyhow. Abhishek good at times but most of the time very over confident same goes for bipasha and actor like bobby deol completely wasted. Neil nitin mukesh did good job at times but he also gets irritating most of the time and Sonam Kapoor undefinable she does not even know how to act in a glamorous character. On the whole if Italian job is 8 out of 10 then this is 1 out of 100 seriously.

'Players' which is an official remake of 'The Italian Job', clearly makes a fool out of itself. Though I tried my best to keep myself without comparing it with the original, compare or not, the film is like the kindergarten version of the classic. The acting lacks intensity, particularly from Sonam's end, only Neil Mukesh gets somewhere with his villainous act. The train robbery scene doesn't give any edge-of-the seat moments, making such an improbable task look like cake-walk. There are some insanely foolish humour, pushed inside the film, trying to make a masala-flick. The twists degrades the credibility of the film, making it a joke! The music is awful with laughable lyrics. But the only place where the film scores is with its cinematography, because there are some moments which captures the scene beautifully. Director duo Abbas-Mustan easily did better with Race. In all, if you are looking for some genuine and entertaining action-thrillers then you can comfortably give this a miss.

A very random cast come together to make a Hindi version of Italian Job and end up spoiling it to no end. The script tries to take twists from the original movie for the Indian people who have actually watched "Italian Job" to go all 'oooooh' in the theater, but what they didn't know is the audience isn't that stupid to believe all that was shown.

Abhishek Bacchan and Neil Nitin Mukesh do a good job, but Sonam Kapoor CANNOT act to save her life, neither is she good looking, what she tries really hard in the movie to be. Bipasha Basu does what she does best.

Some of the stuff shown is so unreal that by half way through, you are just sitting in the theater to at least squeeze in little worth of your money. I mean Mukesh's character 'Spider' has this huge mansion with all high tech stuff, but one bloody vehicle barges in and destroys everything right to his bedroom, really people?

The only saving grace to the movie was the little good action it had, especially the train heist, other than the movie was just in bad taste after what Abbas-Mustan had provided in 'RACE'

I'm a movie lover, I like all kinds of films, so this isn't a fussy review only complaining about bad things.

We all know what this film is about. So here I come to the main part:- I expected a lot better from this film, but yes it didn't stand up till the expectations BUT it stood up from what bad I expected from it.

Let me tell what I found in checkpoints:-

Difference in the remake - The plot is basically the same as the Italian Job but the character backgrounds, back-story and locations are different.

Theme - This movie has many twists. Most are good but unfortunately VERY predictable. Any other movie has them. Many of the scenes were unnecessary and twists were overdone which made them bends.

Cast & Acting - The main characters are Abhishek (Charlie), Sonam (Naina), Bipasha (Ria), Neil (Spider), Sikander (Bilal), Omi (Sunny) and Bobby (Ronnie).

Starting, Abhishek has maintained the SAME style from Dhoom series which is normally fine but here its unacceptable with his cop look. Sonam, sorry to say, but she performed worst here. Her dialogs and acting just wasn't fine, even her taunting in the film was better. Sikander, I don't know, not much of a big star. The good ones were Bipasha & Neil. Bipasha's some elegant acting was like a foil to Sonam's bratty attitude. Omi was okay, he provides the comic role. Neil I would say was good but directing little destroyed it. Now surprisingly Bobby was nice, but sadly he didn't get a decent role (you'll know why). There's also Johhny Lever in a small role, he's also comedy but somehow seems by time he doesn't get good punches..

Songs - In film very bad, on TV or internet, very good. Look on internet, you'll find some decent songs like "Jhoom Ta Hoon Main" & "Dil Ye Bekaraar". But in films they MOSTLY used the less better ones. Songs are a BIG thing to hit a film, I'm surprised why didn't the directors include them.

Directing - This is what didn't fit. The director duo who're great did very wrong things in the film. They DID add nice scenes but COULD NOT present them well. The using was wrong. Some copies, many improvisations, good idea, not great presentation.

My opinion - After seeing my not so favorable comments, I surprisingly say that Players was NOT a bad film. It was okey-dokey. It was long and the first half was boring, second half picked up better but twists broke it. Some unneeded melodrama makes its little shabby, but has pace IF you haven't seen the Italian Job.

Verdict - As said, okay type. LOT of editing needed, but not terrible. 6.25 out of 10.

P.S. - 1 very important thing I want to say that this film doesn't has that much thriller supposed, but contains nothing bad. If you have any intention to watch the film you can surely go for it on discount weekdays or something. Nowadays people don't see the film and only judge by the cast even BEFORE watching a film, like a book's cover, please DON'T. If UTTERLY HORRIBLE USELESS and almost BRAINLESS films like Ready can be a super hit JUST because of Salman, then India is unfair. This is AT LEAST better than Ready, depends on your taste.

Believe me, I watched it and I know its underrated. Films like Chandni Chowk to China & Love Story 2050 are also underrated. No, they don't deserve to be hits but what was bad in them? They tried something new and they were fine for watching on TV like this movie is. :|

The positive thing is the makers have legally acquired the remake rights of "The Italian Job". Sadly the rest is all negative about "Players". For starters the magnanimous star-cast was grossly under-utilised as there is hardly any character depth. Next the screenplay has holes which are about the size of craters. Its evident that handling big canvas was more than what the director-duo could chew. And in order to tweak the plot to Indian sensibilities the 15-minutes of the original has been stretched out till the interval. Add to that the overdose of emotional and noble/ philanthropist sentiments thrown in at epic proportions give an impression that the lead characters are straight out of the mythological age. The serpentine twists of the "Race" seems to have found its way into the plot in an attempt to keep the interest of the audience alive. The lame humour hardly evokes any laughs. Songs hardly register an impact.

Jr. Bachchan seems to have reprising his character from "Game". Sonam Kapoor attempts on weighing out Katrina Kaif, but sadly she is miles to go before she can sleep. Bobby Deol's role can be termed as a blink-and-miss and certainly he will shout foul. Sikander Kher and Bipasha Basu were wasted. Niel Nitin Mukesh attempts "Johhny Gaddar" and is no match for Ed Norton (Irfan Khan or Kay Kay would have been an ideal choice). Vinod Khanna was disappointing, perhaps his character lacks the suave touch he truly deserves.

Verdict: Watch "The Italian Job" to relive the adrenaline moments.