Trailer with few stills http://countdowncafe.com/cafe/2007/12/30/race-trailer/

Race gets Thumbs up in Indiafm review. From promotions, review description etc it looks like a sure shot Super Hit/ Hit. Moreover, Katrina hasn't had a flop for a while now.
In Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa area, it's playing at regular theatres that show major Indian films.
Toronto: Silv City Brampton, Sq One, AMC, Albion-Woodside.
Ottawa: Coliseum (venu changed from Silvercity; same chain)
Montreal: AMC

Playing at Square One in Toronto? LOL.

That's usually for more serious and upscale fare than Race. Maybe they've made a movie for the classes for a change? Nah, who am I kidding!

RIGHT KINDA FILM TO BE BLOCK BUSTER!, follow up to Welcome, Heyy Babyy. 4**** material!

I had bought the CD that was a 2 CD set. Well, it didn't have this new track.

Saw the film but didn't notice this track.

It was a fun film. Not sure how to rate it. It's Paisa Vasool for sure. But, not as good or as interesting as Indiafm review reported. If it's pre-declared that it's a suspense thriller, you are already ready for all twists and turns and they become expected. Best suspense is not knowing that it's a suspense film. Like Johnny Gaddar.

IMHO, Anil Kapoor stole the show after he appeared close to interval.
Just like I don't like Bhai culture being glorified in films, I don't like bribery at work either. (That's why I liked Dhoop that was anti-bribery). Moreover, insurance companies are not stupid.

Technically:
-Film Length from start acknowledgments to end of end credits was 2 hrs 35 min. (No added 'Sexy Lady' song noticed)
-Good photography and locales.
-Plenty of songs and dance.
-Only DD logo, no DTS.
-Directional surrounds were a plenty and distinct.
-Plenty of thundering bass.

just compare it with other AM films, like recent Aitraaz or Humraaz? or compare to Partner, Welcome, Heyy Babyy, OSO kinda hits!

plss do not compare with utter trash like Sunday ke aandey

songs are growing on us.

** READ ON YOUR OWN RISK!

PB rate 4.5/10

Race

Producer: Kumar Taurani, Ramesh Taurani (Tips Films)
Director: Abbas-Mustan
Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, and Sameera Reddy
Music: Pritam
Lyrics: Sameer
Genre: Action
Recommended Audience: Parental Guidance
Approximate Running Time: 2 hrs 34 mins
Film Released on: 21 March 2008
Reviewed by: Amodini Sharma - Rating: 4.5 / 10



Music Review Posters
Public Rating Average: 7.64 / 10 (rated by 7 viewers)
Give your Rating:
If you’ve watched Abbas-Mustan’s previous directorial ventures, you know that they aren’t exactly the pride and joy of Bollywood as far as direction goes. So I didn’t rush to the theater with great expectations, and I must say that the film turned out pretty much as I thought it would. Thus it had zero character development, almost no logic, desultory conversation and some very unfunny lines passed off as humor.

The way this film has been hyped, it looked like Dhoom3 and then some. Yes, it’s got quite a few car chases, hip-swinging songs, bomb blasts, but it doesn’t quite get there. It’s actually better than Dhoom2 story-wise, and by that I mean that it HAS a story, as compared to D2’s almost non-existent one. However the story is ultra-complicated, lots of twists and turns, lots of two-faced characters, betrayals and turn-coats. You can’t tell a friend from a foe, which you’d think would herald a good thriller, but Abbas-Mastan’s inept handling makes short shrift of that notion.

The whole deal is the story of two brothers, the elder Ranveer (Saif) doting on the younger Rajiv (Akshaye). However two-faced Rajiv has a massive chip on his shoulder – Papa never liked him as much, and hence he hates Ranveer’s guts, but will not say so. Instead he plots secretly to bring about Ranveer’s death and get his grubby hands on his $100 million insurance policy. Assisting him in this quest is model Sonia (Bipasha) who’s risen from an orphanage, to dreams of big money. Both Ranveer and Rajiv are sweet on Sonia. In love with Ranveer is his secretary Sophia (Katrina), but he has eyes only for Sonia. Thrown into this mix are another pair – Inspector RD (Robert D’Souza) and his dumb secretary Mini (Sameera), doing the “Karamchand-Kitty” act.

So, essentially there are 5 main characters; the 6th – Sameera’s in inconsequential, and extremely annoying. All the 6 characters are paper-thin, not a shred of believability is left after Abbas-Mastan are done with their work. I consider Saif, Akshaye and Anil reasonably able actors, but given their haphazardly put together roles and their inane dialogues, it’s not surprising that they perform well under par. Akshaye is the best (and that’s a relative term) of the lot, but then Akshaye always does petulance well.


The women are perpetually made-up, wear skimpy clothing, and bland smiles. Katrina is quite the sexy secretary, with no life of her own; be it an after work party at the club, or her boss arriving at the airport, she’s always there. Bipasha as the glamorous Sonia comes across as highly sexed up; she’s always wearing heavy makeup, dressed up for meals like she was lunching with the Queen, and essentially just oozing oomph, be it night or day. Sameera Reddy who’s not as physically fit as the other two ladies plays dumb (and she can speak all right). Accompanying her Inspector boss to take notes, she scribbles busily on her pad, attired in backless mini-dresses, with midriff baring necklines. Apparently Abbas-Mastan have hit upon the magic formula for filmi success – thrills, chills and the female body in very little clothing; story, screenplay and sense be damned.

Neither Katrina or Bipasha, as gorgeous as they are, can act to save their lives. Katrina actually appears to believe that smiling IS acting, which is probably why she does it a lot. Smiling that is. Bipasha is a known quantity, and uses her handy one-glassy-expression-for-all-emotions technique. Sameera who can act, is given the weak role that requires none.

The characters such as they are, lead fairly absurd, one-dimensional lives. They appear to have a few traits we know about, and the audience is expected to subsist on this diet of very hard-to-believe, hollowed out, slapdash set of characters. Screenplay is extremely poor, and direction while average needs to push the pace a little. It ain’t no thriller if it takes forever.

The film starts off in South Africa, at the Durban Cup, where horse stud farm owner Ranveer is losing his races, and his money. We are treated to a brief intro to the characters of the film via a voice-over by Anil Kapoor (he as Inspector RD actually comes in only post-intermission), and his narration goes on for quite a while. Now whenever a director has to employ a narrator to actually tell us about the characters and their traits, instead of showing us by letting them speak and emote, it’s a sign that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Very true in this case, because Abbas-Mastan haven’t a clue.


The first half of the film is actually B-O-R-I-N-G. The characters appeared silly, shallow and mentally challenged. The dialogues were incredibly inane, and cheesy. Besides the nice cars, and nicer women there wasn’t much going on here. The interval came on a promising note, with the arrival of Inspector RD and assistant Mini, and you think Anil Kapoor’s going to rev things up ! But, no, Inspector RD appears to be an ape in human clothing, chomping on fruits, and lusting for Mini. Mini, of course is lacking in the brain department, and thus she becomes the butt of many not-so-funny jokes. If Sameera Reddy attempting to display an emotion were not enough for you, there’s Johnny Lever. Lever appears to be in full form, rolling his eyes, and comparing women to cell-phones. Oh joy !

The film has very good music, set to entirely inappropriate and weirdly placed songs. Lush dance numbers, complete with gyrating extras, spring up at the drop of a hat. Sophia and Ranveer go on a business trip, and manage to squeeze out a song while there. Ranveer tells Sophia that she’s a good friend, when she’s fishing for a compliment, and she breaks out into a song asking him to “Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me”.

One does not speak of Abbas-Mastan and quality in the same breath, but one must note that the story has huge, gaping holes. I do not talk of ordinary holes, as in the mortal film-viewer’s wonderment at getting from Point A to Point Z, without traversing through Points B through Y; I talk of gaping holes into which a continent the size of Asia could submerge and disappear wholly from view. And then there are the smaller mishaps – like Ranveer talking of Dispirin to cure hang-overs, and call me picky, but why in South Africa are they using Dispirin, and not a local brand of medicine ? But then this is Bollywood folks – we are good on locales, and poor on details.

This was not an entirely un-redeemable plot. In the hands of a more able director, with enough emphasis on quality, characterization, and details this could have been a good film. Saddled with Abbas-Mastan’s myopia and desire to churn out a worthy successor to Dhoom2, this film fails massively. If you liked Dhoom2, you’ll probably find "Race" an adequate entertainer. However, if like me, you thought that D2 was the pits, best keep away from this disaster.



** directors are giving you what you like to watch super audience!

I kind of agree with PB rating and that the first half was boring.


See it just for the songs, their picturization, Anil Kapoor comedy and agressive surround if you are lucky enough to have film print matching theatre audio system .

..why give away so much spoiler details that is not what we want to know before seeing this film yaar

Oops, I didn't think it would be a spoiler.
I changed my posting.
May be if you too could change this possible spoiler comment into small font.
Thanks.
----------------------
BTW, the songs are growing on me on repeated listening after having seen the film. May be one would enjoy this film better if already familiar with the songs.

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie!! Yes there are very large plot holes and well... everything is built on a string of consequences, but still, this was just pure entertainment. I've actually seen this 3 times this weekend (yes once each day) and well i think this is my fave Abbas Mustan film.... (my previous faves were Humraaz, Baazigar and Khiladi).

Without going into spoilers, who do u think is the best in the film. Saif is like a superhero in the movie, but i still think Akshaye is the best. He chews scenery like the best of them and he's obviously the one with the most acting talent in the cast!

Did you notice the new added song:


BTW, did you too get plenty of directional surround in your screening ??

Abbas-Mustan's thriller races to top spot
Abbas-Mustan's Race got a great start at the box office thanks to a long weekend with major holidays. With an excellent opening and reasonably steady collections on Monday, especially at multiplexes, the film will be a moderate success.

Note: Films are ranked according to their release dates. The thumbs ups and downs reflect rediff's views.




Race

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Bipasha Basu and Sameera Reddy.
Director: Abbas-Mustan.
Katrina's stylish sexiness; Anil Kapoor's screen presence.

Unoriginal, over-twisted plot; badly written and executed.

Number of weeks: New.
BO Verdict: Great opening.

Review




Black & White

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Anurag Sinha, Aditi Sharma.
Director: Subhash Ghai.
Good intent, fine performances, restrained effort.

Awkward romantic track, some overdone cliches.

Number of weeks: 1.
BO Verdict: Flop.

Review




Jodhaa Akbar

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Poonam Sinha, Ila Arun, Nikitin Dheer, Sonu Sood.
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker.
Hrithik's terrific performance, awesome music.

Much too long, Gowariker tries to tackle too many aspects of Akbar's life and does not do justice to any.

Number of weeks: 3.
BO Verdict: Average.

Review 1 | 2




Mithya

Cast: Ranvir Sheorey, Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia.
Director: Rajat Kapoor.
Unique story, great performance from Ranvir, Brijendra Kala is hilarious.

Half-baked romantic track with Neha Dhupia.

Number of weeks: 4.
BO Verdict: Flop.

Review




Superstar

Cast: Kunal Khemu, Tulip Joshi.
Director: Rohit Jugraj.
Good performances from the cast.

Script has too many loopholes.

Number of weeks: 4.
BO Verdict: Flop.

Review




Rama Rama Kya Hai Dramaaa

Cast: Rajpal Yadav, Neha Dhupia, Amrita Arora, Aashish Chaudhary.
Director: Chandrakant Singh.
Can't think of any.

A never-ending bad, bad comedy.

Number of weeks: 5.
BO Verdict: Flop.

Review




Sunday

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Irrfan Khan, Ayesha Takia.
Director: Rohit Shetty.
Good performances, superb camerawork.

Disappointing climax and muddled comic-thriller.

Number of weeks: 6.
BO Verdict: Flop.

Review




Bombay To Bangkok

Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Lena Christensen.
Director: Nagesh Kukunoor.
Good performances.

Extremely boring and lengthy film, with a wafer-thin plot.

Number of weeks: 7.
BO Verdict: Flop.

Review




Halla Bol

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Pankaj Kapur, Vidya Balan.
Director: Rajkumar Santoshi.
Shows Bollywood interestingly, Pankaj Kapur.

Too preachy, too lengthy.

Number of weeks: 8.
BO Verdict: Flop.

Review




My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves

Cast: Amrita Rao, Nikhil Dwivedi.
Director: E Niwas.
The film packs in an interesting blend of action, dance, drama, comedy and tragedy.

Slow in parts.

Number of weeks: 8.
BO Verdict: Flop.

Review

Trade pundit: Vinod Mirani | Design: Uday Kuckian

Last week's box-office results


Tell us what you think of these ratings

Too many twists spoil this Race

Raja Sen | March 21, 2008 21:03 IST





T
Okay, I'm going to do you a huge favour here.

Highlight the following area if you want to read the film's ridiculous and completely irrelevant climax:

deleted!

That, dear readers, is the climax of the latest Abbas-Mustan film, Race. And why I have just spilt the proverbial beans is because it'll be a far more interesting movie for you if you go in knowing how it ends -- and then spend your time in the theatre trying to figure exactly how the filmmakers reach that preposterous ending after the completely unrelated first few reels.

Trust me, my way is definitely better than their way.

Abbasbhai and Mustanbhai are veteran practitioners of the fatafat produced thriller, but this -- their biggest budget effort by far -- tries to be slick and stylish while actually trying to cling on to a plot. Therefore we have pointless, and constant, changes of direction to the story, at every given opportunity. There's nothing wrong with unpredictability, but it needs to be thought through. A-M bhailog, these many twists suit jalebiwallahs better than filmmakers.

Our film opens with horse races, but aside from having a few whinnying stallions in the background every now and then -- largely to frame a shirtless Saif -- there's really not much about that world in this film save for a couple of races, fixed with painful, amateurish obviousness. This is Durban and our top horse owners are archrivals Saif and Dalip Tahil, the latter again forced into an inconsequential, villain-caricature role.

Anyway, Saif plays a gruff and stubbly millionaire not given to much emotional expression, hiding most of them behind his big sunglasses. He does, however, intensely love his stepbrother Akshaye, a good-for-nothing drunk with a hipflask surgically attached to his palm.

Saif's sexy secretary Katrina is in love with him, we are informed by Anil Kapoor's voice in the sort of inconsistent know-it-all narrative that smells fishy, rather like scarlet herrings. Kapoor also tells us that Saif is quite hot and heavy with Bipasha, who models Provogue garments for South Africa.

And now begins the carnival of twists, with each character stripped bare to show money-lust where some shred of morality would usually lie. Here, it is only the characters that lie, throughout the film.

And while it's perfectly acceptable for a thriller to be dark and cynical and let the characters chart their own sordid course, it is vital to either a) have somebody in the whole film who actually has a code of ethics, or b) create characters compelling enough to root for, despite their hardcore darkness.

Here, the directors take route 'c,' the one that presumably stands for the all-important word 'commercial.' This is a simple route: it asks to focus on the stunts and the skirts, and let the twists lie there just for impact. Unfortunately, unlike the Dhoom 2 [Images] that this film is desperately craving to be, Race can't go all the way into the insubstantial and gets caught up in actually trying to tell a story -- and it's a helluva loopy tale. And it's nowhere near as slick as it needs to be.

Saif Ali Khan is completely wasted in the film, his apparent preparation for the character being not to shave for a while, and to perhaps trim a few kilos so that the immense suspension of disbelief doesn't seem as abrupt. Not that it helps. He grunts mannequin-like through the motions, mostly looking like he wandered on the sets from another film.

Akshaye Khanna has the film's main role, and while his smirk and his shrug manage a couple of lines alright, this really isn't a performance to talk about. Never convincing, the otherwise competent Khanna too seems to be phoning in this role, more at ease grimacing behind the wheel than actually delivering his constant, overwritten punchlines.

The girls? Bipasha Basu looks visibly uncomfortable in the part, squirming from one inappropriate costume to another, and really needs to work on her 'casual' English. Katrina Kaif looks significantly hot dressed in raunchy secretary gear, but the more she's kept away from the dialogues the better. Sameera Reddy [Images] plays Kapoor's bimbette assistant, and perpetually wears the disbelieving grin of a girl who can't believe she's getting to share screen space with Saif and Anil.

Kapoor, despite being armed with nothing but fruits and groan-provoking lines, emerges as the only character to like in this vague mess. Not only does the actor carry off a horseshoe moustache like it's nobody's business, but his post-interval entry into the film injects some life into the random 'thrills.'

All in all, it's a rank amateur effort. The actors do their bit, but they too are mostly detachedly going through the motions hoping the camera and the cool moments would carry them through. They don't. This is a boringly shot, shabbily edited film, and it's hard to imagine anyone watching it and actually feeling the twists without laughing at them.

Watch it if you must; it's not objectionably bad. But there really is nothing at all good about this Race either. Heck, even the horses seem sleepy.

Rediff Rating:


1.5/5( who cares? if super hit lol!)