Movie Review: Dhoom II - Back in Action
I never thought I'd review a Bollywood movie, but I just finished watching one with my parents, and I'm in the mood, so what the hell?
Honestly, I'm kind of surprised about how many Bollywood movies I actually like, considering how many years I spent avoiding them like the plague. So,
Reason for watching: Veena and Chander gave it to my parents to watch a couple of weeks ago, and left it for another week so I could watch it. And the cover looked kind of cool. And watching Bollywood movies is something my parents and I can actually do together without much arguments or complaints of boredom. My dad even turned on the surround sound.
Summary can be found here, if wanted.
Music and Dance: First of all, if you can't stand pointless song and dance, never watch a Bollywood movie. Seriously, in every one, there's always at least one song, sometimes more that has NO POINT except to be there, and make the actors and actresses look sexy. And I don't mean, "Why are they singing instead of talking" kind of pointless that is the basis for most musicals. I mean the-plot-just-stopped-for-a-few-minutes-so-if-you-don't-feel-like-watching-now-might-be-a-good-time-to-go-get-a-snack-from-the-kitchen kind of pointless. In my opinion, every song that I can think of was the latter. But it was good music, and music I liked. I think there was actually only one song that annoyed me a little, and that one made me laugh, so it's forgiven. The dancing was comparable the the dancing from an 80's Janet Jackson music video, so you can decide off of that. Personally, I lilke 80's music videos.
Plot: Not half bad. Not the greatest. It's an action flick - two cops chasing a thief, and women and romance are involved. The thief's side was a bit of a cross between James Bond and Mission:Impossible, and the cops' side made me think of True Lies. All of which are movies I like (well, I do like all the James Bond movies I've seen. I still prefer Pierce Brosnan, though.)
Setting: This was kind of all over the place, really. We had a train, Mumbai (i think) and Rio de Janeiro. That's all I really remember. I was pretty confused a lot of he time about where they were. Apparently, my parents weren't as confused, though, so that might just be me.
Characterization: Ah, yes, the big one. I think there were some pretty good, albeit stock, characters all around. We have two cops, one to be badass, and the other for comic relief. We have two, maybe three women (I'm still not sure whether the girl who played Shonali also played Monali, considering Shonali completely disappeared after the first half of the movie, and is never mentioned again once her sister is introduced. If she did play both parts, she did a pretty good job with the change of personality). And I'm not counting tthe pregnant wife of the badass cop, because she was only there for the first five or ten minutes of the movie, and was never mentioned again. I think her only role was to explain why her husband never actually hit on any of the other women he was working with. He's married, and he's decent enough not to cheat on her. That's about it. The other women are the sexy cop and her sister, who in my opinion is the lovable ditz, although that was probably because she didn't understand a word of Hindi. In a Hindi movie. Everyone else spoke English from time to time, but she spoke English the whole time. And none of it was really very deep. And of course, the heroine, or villainess of the movie, depending on whose side you want to take, played by Miss Universe herself, Aishwara Rai, is the devilishly beautiful thief who's being forced to work for the cops. Honestly, her acting wasn't half bad.
In my opinion, the star of this movie was the thief, "Mr. A" played by Hrithik Roshan. I loved this character. He's a typical badass, the "perfect" thief who can't be caught. He always wears a disguise, has high-tech gadgets, and his signature mark is the letter "A." And he can cook. Fucking gourmet meals. He's a food connoisseur and and artist - his robberies are art.
All in all, I enjoyed this movie a lot. It was cheesy, yes. That's something I expect from Bollywood movies. But it didn't feel cheesy, except the comic relief cop. But I liked the action, and I enjoyed the story (and watching Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai dance in pretty revealing outfits). And I'm working on downloading the soundtrack (if I can find a working copy), which is of course the most important part of any Bollywood film. And I've never seen Dhoom, so I don't know how this works as a sequel.
Honestly, I'm kind of surprised about how many Bollywood movies I actually like, considering how many years I spent avoiding them like the plague. So,
Reason for watching: Veena and Chander gave it to my parents to watch a couple of weeks ago, and left it for another week so I could watch it. And the cover looked kind of cool. And watching Bollywood movies is something my parents and I can actually do together without much arguments or complaints of boredom. My dad even turned on the surround sound.
Summary can be found here, if wanted.
Music and Dance: First of all, if you can't stand pointless song and dance, never watch a Bollywood movie. Seriously, in every one, there's always at least one song, sometimes more that has NO POINT except to be there, and make the actors and actresses look sexy. And I don't mean, "Why are they singing instead of talking" kind of pointless that is the basis for most musicals. I mean the-plot-just-stopped-for-a-few-minutes-so-if-you-don't-feel-like-watching-now-might-be-a-good-time-to-go-get-a-snack-from-the-kitchen kind of pointless. In my opinion, every song that I can think of was the latter. But it was good music, and music I liked. I think there was actually only one song that annoyed me a little, and that one made me laugh, so it's forgiven. The dancing was comparable the the dancing from an 80's Janet Jackson music video, so you can decide off of that. Personally, I lilke 80's music videos.
Plot: Not half bad. Not the greatest. It's an action flick - two cops chasing a thief, and women and romance are involved. The thief's side was a bit of a cross between James Bond and Mission:Impossible, and the cops' side made me think of True Lies. All of which are movies I like (well, I do like all the James Bond movies I've seen. I still prefer Pierce Brosnan, though.)
Setting: This was kind of all over the place, really. We had a train, Mumbai (i think) and Rio de Janeiro. That's all I really remember. I was pretty confused a lot of he time about where they were. Apparently, my parents weren't as confused, though, so that might just be me.
Characterization: Ah, yes, the big one. I think there were some pretty good, albeit stock, characters all around. We have two cops, one to be badass, and the other for comic relief. We have two, maybe three women (I'm still not sure whether the girl who played Shonali also played Monali, considering Shonali completely disappeared after the first half of the movie, and is never mentioned again once her sister is introduced. If she did play both parts, she did a pretty good job with the change of personality). And I'm not counting tthe pregnant wife of the badass cop, because she was only there for the first five or ten minutes of the movie, and was never mentioned again. I think her only role was to explain why her husband never actually hit on any of the other women he was working with. He's married, and he's decent enough not to cheat on her. That's about it. The other women are the sexy cop and her sister, who in my opinion is the lovable ditz, although that was probably because she didn't understand a word of Hindi. In a Hindi movie. Everyone else spoke English from time to time, but she spoke English the whole time. And none of it was really very deep. And of course, the heroine, or villainess of the movie, depending on whose side you want to take, played by Miss Universe herself, Aishwara Rai, is the devilishly beautiful thief who's being forced to work for the cops. Honestly, her acting wasn't half bad.
In my opinion, the star of this movie was the thief, "Mr. A" played by Hrithik Roshan. I loved this character. He's a typical badass, the "perfect" thief who can't be caught. He always wears a disguise, has high-tech gadgets, and his signature mark is the letter "A." And he can cook. Fucking gourmet meals. He's a food connoisseur and and artist - his robberies are art.
All in all, I enjoyed this movie a lot. It was cheesy, yes. That's something I expect from Bollywood movies. But it didn't feel cheesy, except the comic relief cop. But I liked the action, and I enjoyed the story (and watching Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai dance in pretty revealing outfits). And I'm working on downloading the soundtrack (if I can find a working copy), which is of course the most important part of any Bollywood film. And I've never seen Dhoom, so I don't know how this works as a sequel.