Bang Bang! - Review

Lonely bank receptionist Harleen (Katrina Kaif) takes a chance on the online dating site TruLuvvv.com. She arrives for the scheduled date at a restaurant, only to instead be wined and dined by intruding master thief Rajveer (Hrithik Roshan), who just pulled off the major score of stealing the "Koh-i-Noor" diamond. Because of this meet cute, Harleen has to join Rajveer's globe-hopping quest to avoid the detection of the authorities and sell the diamond to a criminal kingpin, who also is sending goons after them to save a couple million dollars. As they are firing bullets and stealing cars, Rajveer teaches Harleen to kick her bucket list ASAP and know the difference between being transported to a safe house and a "safe house". Does that last note sound a bit familiar? That's because BANG BANG! is a Bollywood remake of KNIGHT AND DAY, except that it is far, far better.


I was not enamored at all by that pathetically awful Cruise-Diaz picture, so any changes and revisions are guaranteed to be beneficial. Thankfully, there are a lot of changes to the formula brought on by director Siddharth Anand and his crew. The threats are more believable, the jokes and comedic foils are actually funny, the on-location set-pieces all look gorgeous, and the action sequences are better thought out and badass, with the true highlight being the first display of flyboarding on film. The biggest tradeoff, however, is that the movie is enriched with product placement for Mountain Dew and Pizza Hut, with the latter serving as an important factor in the pre-intermission cliffhanger. Roshan is amazingly great as the chaotic neutral Rajveer. He's a cool action hero (doing all of his stunts), a sweet charmer, more shredded than lettuce, and once again shows off his fantastic dancing skills. Kaif is very cute as the lovably ditzy Harleen, able to fit in better as a believable normal woman than Diaz. As for the music, bring you earplugs because it is a total fest for EDM. I personally enjoy all of the wub-wubs and high-octane beats, so I was invigorated by Vishal-Shekhar's score. Only possessing four tracks, the film's best musical breaks were its bookends: the street dance party of "Tu Meri" and the disco/Michael Jackson coda of the titled tune. Don't say you'll watch it "one day"; give it a shot when you have the chance to see it in theaters.



FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5