Race 2

"Race" was truly an classy thriller loaded with serpentine twists. A benchmark so high that warranted the makers to surpass if not match. Sadly the franchise clearly is out for the money that can be milked and therefore loses its steam.

For starters instead of taking the linear continuation, the franchise should have been independent in its own right. Too many references to "Race" spoil the proceedings.

Anil Kapoor sadly resorted to gawdy adult jokes. Ameesha Patel, the bimbo secretary was a stocking filler for Sameera Reddy which I am sure nobody cared. Saif reprised his role and look from the first one. Bipasha has a two-minute cameo. Jacqueline & Deepika attempted to fill the void of Katrina and failed miserably. On that note, Jacqueline has the looks and the style to carry it off - sadly lacks in acting department. John Abraham seems to reprising his role from "Dhoom" only this time around steals bits and pieces from "Force" to showcase his chiseled body in the match sequences. Aditya Pancholi is passable.

Pritam has done full justice to the music and is in line with the first "Race". And thats the only saving grace about this sequel.

Race 2 is about a smart hero and a dumb villain and that should have been the end of the story, but it continues. Saif is sleek as a knife and John is dumber than Ameesha 'the dumb girl' (who is supposed to act dumb). The script is plain with little twists, no turns and bad jokes that just fails to follow the trails of Race. Deepika is oozing steam but Jacqueline fails to look hot and vicious at the same time. The action scenes are way over the top, too Bollywood, or just scuffles (in fact, I was more impressed with the actions in the trailer of Commando). Just for a hint, one of the bigger villain says, "TUM BOH CHORI KARNE KI BAAT KAR RAHE HO JO AAJ TAK Hollywood MOVIES MAIN BHI NAHI HUA HAI".

Race 2 is a blunt and pompous movie with a villain made (by the script) and act so dumb that the hero finishes the race without any scratch, with one of the lady (keep guessing) in an 'audi flying with parachutes' out of a chartered plane with everything else falling behind.

Abbas-Mustan always believes in dashing looks, tough fights, engaging storytelling and nail biting climaxes. Well, it worked really well in Race I collecting 85.5 crores worldwide; unfortunately in Race II, although the casts are super cool and fight scenes are quite impressive but the movie lacks immensely on that engaging-story-part.! The movie starts with a bang and takes convoluted route with lots of twists and turns but a bit too slowly because of frequent and unnecessary songs; then in the middle the script looses its element of surprise and you get 'remake' scenes from Zorro I (sword fight where Saif magically redid the epic scene by Antonio Banderas but with 'blunted' swords!) and instead of a sequel you get an ill-advised rehash. The good 'bad-guy' Ranvir/Saif steals the 'highly protected' Shroud Of Turin with just a simple password-forgery and then escapes through the under ground drainage system (which was totally unprotected except an iron-lid); question is, why couldn't he use the same vent to enter the chamber in the first place?!! Can't blame the casts, everyone of them tried hard to live upto their expectations except Amisha Patel playing the role of Anil's extraordinaryly dumb, sex-starved secretary with her poor dressing sense and heavily innuendo-laden dialogues like "When will you pop my cherry?" In short, Race II is a wreck of a movie with pointless screenplay. Only thing racy about the movie is the sizzling Deepika Padukone.

I wasn't expecting much from the director duo after "Players." But, since Race was a very good watch, I watched Race 2 and was disappointed.

It starts with fabulous action sequences in great locations and as you try and perceive what it will be all about in the remaining 2 hours, a twist awaits you and the total number of twists we have here is colossal and that is why I gave it 5 stars. It is surely a thriller, I guarantee that. But too much of style and Bollywood punches ruined this broth.

But, as a cinemaholic, I felt the plot was saggy, the performances by the cast wasn't up to the mark. Saif is cool, John is beast and lacks character depth, the lead girls act dumb and try VERY hard to be killers. Anil Kapoor has disappointed me the most with his not-so-witty jokes along with emcee voluptuous Amisha! And it also demands total attention or else, you will lose your way into this maze.

Direction is sweet; the screenplay sucks and the story, which has to be a foundation of such high-octane flicks is feeble, fickle and sometimes even super-fly. Music is like... good - but the songs - film- makers were forced to slide them in.

Race 2 is not a red-lounge-reclining seat movie, but looking at the 2013 releases, it is better than Matru but feebler than Table No. 21.

Bottom Line: Some Race 2 sequences will make you whine and swear, but the rest MAY... I repeat, MAY make you happy. It is a type of movie where different people will have different verdicts. And my verdict is it is a preposterous caper where no only a couple of rich Indians run the town. It is like hue & saturation. You can go for it if you haven't anything to do this three- day weekend! It will entertain you to some extent, but if you are a serious cinema-goer (and critic) and aspire logic, Race 2 cannot be compared with its predecessor or with any action flick for that matter.

Some pivotal plot points have been copied from Nicholas Cage starrer National Treasure & certain Hollywood spy movies.

WATCH OUT FOR: Saif, explosions, ridiculous stunt scenes, numerous plot turns, expected ending, cheesy dialogues and a useless wrestling sequence.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

Language: Clean | Sex: No | Foreplay: No | Violence: Strong | Gore: Very Mild | Alcohol: Strong | Nudity: Medium | Smoking: No

There is no imagination, or rather stupid imagination all through the movie. The amount of money thrown around is obscene...for the first time a bollywood movie talks in billions of Euros. The special effects are childish, the premise and the so called twists are crazy. Its all about being glamorous, the script proves that no brains have been applied. I cant think of enough bad adjectives for this movie. I couldn't avoid watching it, but do yourselves a favor and stay away from it. I was feeling embarrassed watching it, the makers should have been ashamed.

Lets take one example of the multitude in this movie. a car is fitted with a bomb that would burst if the speed is reduced. So Saif removes it while the car is doing 100+, but lo and behold, the bomb has no wiring connected to anything in the car. its just stuck there, he pulls it and throws it away. So how would it have tripped if the speed was reduced? Just one of the hundreds of examples of asinine non logics in this movie. Stay AWAY!!