So I checked out an Indian language / Bollywood film called War. My local theater actually gets a pretty decent number of Indian (as in: filmed in India) movies, none of which I see because A) I don’t know what they are, B) they are all 2 1/2 hours long, and C) well… they are subtitled. I don’t mind a subtitled movie, but maybe not at that run-time. But War popped into the domestic top 10 last weekend and I heard it was a bonkers action flick. So I figured maybe 2 1/2 hours of action might not exactly overwhelm with the subtitles… which is a thought that makes me feel like a neanderthal (“ook. Me hate words on magic screen. Ook.”) But that’s the truth… I dared a largely unknown Indian film because it was a big dumb action movie. Where’d I put my club?
So War IS a big dumb action film and reminds me a great deal of a Mission Impossible movie and a Fast and Furious movie had a baby. And that baby is the most machismo-dripping, ass-kicking, over-dramatic music blaring, muscled baby ever. I’ve seen some clips of Bollywood action films that are silly and over-the-top but War is a little more serious in that the action, while extreme, isn’t quite as ridiculous as those. But it’s still ridiculous and over-the-top and omg this is hard to explain. It’s big, loud, and stupid but in a way that a mainstream American movie would be…. only kind of dialed up a couple notches.
The film is about an Indian super-soldier who goes rogue so the Indian version of the CIA (or whatever) sends his protege after him. Not a particularly original idea – the young gun has to track down his mentor – but it’s serviceable enough. And it’s kind of fun to see Indian patriotism what with speeches about saving India from some vaguely defined foreign threat and giant Indian flags waving in the breeze in slow-mo. Its our own goony action movies recycled right back at us.
And, hell, the movie is a lot of fun. I didn’t think it would be at the start since it was so full of muscle-man, cool guys walk away from explosions posturing and the music is at a constant dramatic eleven at ALL times. It’s bordering on parody but they were apparently being quite serious. Maybe? Very confusing… but the longer the movie went, the more I got into its silly groove. This is a heck of an empty time at the movies. The plot is overkill and full of implausible twists and turns but the action works hard enough to wave all the stupidity away. More-or-less.
And then, right as there’s that moment between the hero and villain where they are posturing at each other in a train full of civilians… the word “Interval” flashes on the screen and the hyper-dramatic music stops. And a scene where the villain explains the idea of winning and losing to a little girl comes on and it feels like a GI Joe PSA from the 80s. But that’s fine since the flick turns into a flashback love story that (an hour into the movie) starts to fill in backstory. And suddenly it’s a completely different movie, a love story with actual human emotions (and a different kind of florid overdone music). Do a double-take at thirty minutes of this and then we’re back into the action.
One thing Bollywood movies are known for are crazy musical dance numbers. I figured a big dumb action movie wouldn’t have one… but it had two. Yes, to celebrate the heroes taking down a cadre of ISIS fighters, the hold a wild party and our muscle-bound, so cool in their sunglasses dudebros break out into a dance extravaganza. And it’s really good. Perplexing and so very bro-tastic, but good. The two leads are clearly dancers (or trained like hell for the movie) on top of being muscle-bound hulks. It’s as if Arnold and Sly got done murdering people and then: DANCE OFF!
Anyhow, this is an interesting movie. Not because it’s the best action movie ever and not because it has a brain cell to share… but because its so exuberantly over the top that it’s just kind of fun to sit through. And laugh a bit at when you aren’t sure if they are realize how ridiculous it is. But, that said, some of that over-postured action is still really good. And it’s nice to experience a dumb American movie as translated and regurgitated back at us from India. Plus the dance numbers were fun.
Score: 84