This movie, as the observant amongst you readers will have noticed, was (surprise!) Race.
Usually, after watching a movie, a good friend and I scrounge through its IMDB and Wikipedia entries to see if we can dig up nuggets about said movie. And if it happens to be a very new one, we look up the reviews online, to see if it conforms with our opinion of the movie.
Our opinion of this movie: BLARGH!
One of the crappiest Hindi movies to have ever seen the light of day, it is rendered worse by the fact that so many otherwise decent actors agreed to work in this craptacular waste of time. Even our joblessness felt cheated!
HOWEVER!
What totally, completely, utterly rocked our sensibilities (even beyond the McKinsey Life Insurance shown in the film!) was the existence of a shocking number of positive reviews this movie was receiving! So I decided to pick through six random reviews, just to bring to light the awesomeness in the perception gaps between different people.
1. 'Race' - An okay entertainer
Starts off well by saying subtlety and restraint aren't exactly the hallmarks of Abbas-Mustaan (how the heck do you spell that second guy's name?!), but then actually lauds Akshaye Khanna on his performance! To be fair though, he wasn't bad, but certainly not praiseworthy. Acting cannot be graded relatively!
They do mention that Sameera Reddy sounds dumb quite convincingly. What they fail to mention is their opinion on whether this is by design or not :-D
2. “RACE” - One of the 10 Best Thrillers
The most shocking review of them all! Its title alone makes one cringe. The entire body of the review is so stuffed with hyperbole, one is actually left wondering if it isn't really poking fun at the movie. The one thing they do get right is a square-peg-in-round-hole reference to Sameera Reddy.
3. Indiainfo Movie Reviews
Another review calling this movie a sure-fire "Best" for 2008 - with the 3rd month in the year not over yet! Worse yet, it goes on to heap praise on the writing and (urk!) the dialogues! The dialogues, incidentally, was unanimously voted as the corniest, most predictable tripe to ever be dished out on-screen, after our screening.
4. Economic Times Review
Finally, sanity prevails! Finally, a review that gives this movie its rightful place in Bollyworld! Finally, somebody gathers up the cojones to look past "dumb", and call Sameera Reddy (in the movie) silly, naive, stupid and irritating!
Only one gripe though: it pans the movie in totality, and then labels it 'not bad'. BZZZT!! Wrong!
5. Rediff: Too many twists spoil this Race
My most favourite review of the lot. Praises Kapoor's "Sanjay Dutt-Musafir" knock-off look, but captures the movie best in two words: vague mess.
Says it isn't objectionably bad, but that's okay, there's not much that needs objecting to.
6. My own review
This one's simple and short: what is wrong with this movie?
Answer:
Not bad? Bah. Avoid at all costs!
9 comments:
hmmm...
>>> did the storyline move at a brisk pace
yes
>>> were Anil Kapoors PJs good?
yes
>>> were the heroines hot?
yes
>>> were the songs good?
yes
>>> was the storyline predictable?
no
so come again why is the movie crap y apart from the fact that sameera reddy only existed to attract rural golt audience?
>>> was there a lot of confusion?
yes
>>> were many scenes forced into the script?
yes
>>> were the songs required?
no
>>> weren't there loopholes in the script?
yes
so come again why is the movie good apart from some great stunts, style and beautiful south africa.
Couldn't have put it better myself, SmokerJoe :D
Additionally, JC - WHAT storyline?!? It genuinely looked like the director duo couldn't agree upon what to do with their wafer-thin plot, and came to a compromise, where either of them gets to do what they want for 10 minutes alternating.
This is the only possible explanation I can think of for the so-called 'twists' in the so-called 'storyline'...
@smokerjoe
I dont know about you but I can find one loophole/min in most masala bollywood scrips, looking past that what I liked was the complete package of songs, action, suspense, comedy, glamor and style
@shrk
hehe! confused it may be but u have to admit many parts were not predictable which is refreshingly new to hindi movies, prolly thts what I liked.
ps: finding a movie good or bad, most often is based on our own expectations...what the mind expects the eye watches.
@ JC
Storyline? What?! Where??
And Anil Kapoor's PJs did not qualify even to be called pathetic, I don't recall a single line that evoked audible laughter from the audience.
The heriones were hot, but what does a girl like me benefit from that?
The songs were decent, yeah. But the storyline was sooo predictable! Everyone knew SAK wasn't dead! We knew Katrina was shady too. And in fact I predict a RACE-2, surely Akshay Khanna isn't dead either.
Even considering that I am completely jobless at this point of time, this movie ruined 3 precious hours of my life! RACE insults one's intelligence! It's a pity that bollywood's standards are so low that such a crappy movie evokes such good reviews.
If one finds this movie good, then good for him. But seriously, if this is predicted to be 2008's best movie, then God bless Bollywood!
:D
happens...
Thankfully, I have not seen the movie yet. Read another review saying the movie is so bad that it is a must watch.
btw, that second review in your list gives me the creeps. For no apparent reason, the reviewer keeps "bold"ing random text
I agree with you 100% on the director duo not agreeing with each other.
Follow the below link.
http://gauravt168.blogspot.com/2008/03/race.html
oh. regarding unpredictability. movie is bound to be unpredictable when director themselves didn't know what they are gonna show next.
It seems Abbas and Mustan took turns in directing the movie, without knowing what other is doing.
The movie was like some permutation combination problem. You take 2 guys and 2 girls and make as many straight pairings that change dynamically in intervals [otherwise known as "group dynamics among singletons"] and just add some songs and a cool location.
I watched it with a friend, who at the revealing of every "twist" [yawn] kept yelling - "See! I told you" with giddy excitment. :D That part was fun.
Post a Comment