Dear Zindagi has the longest prelude in recent memory – endless soft-focus montages, friendly banter, and lovable close-ups and fly-on-the-wall footage of the magnificent Alia Bhatt as a romantically confused cinematographer, all of which seem to be adding up to something vague or nothing at all.

The action is nasty and short, and before any “what just happened” questions can be asked, ACP Yash delivers yet another punch. It’s not quite India’s answer to the Mission: Impossible films, but at least on the thrills front, it’s halfway there.

The characters have barely progressed since Rock On!!, and if anything, their bickering proves that they are frozen in the universe created by the first film. Aditya continues to be troubled by trifles; KD is still the enthusiastic peacemaker; Joe can’t seem to stop playing party-pooper.

An endless supply of pop culture references and a swagger similar to Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark character from the Iron Man films allow Doctor Strange to showcase Cumberbatch’s talents. But the filmmaking isn’t bold enough to fully revel in the strangeness of the source material. Co-writer C Robert Cargill had said in an interview that an early version of the script was rejected by producer Marvel Studios for being “too weird”, which is exactly what the film needed to be.

The movie’s self-conscious and almost apologetic sober approach, muted shades (the cinematography is by Anil Mehta), and grown-up acting persists all the way till the ridiculous pre-climax twist.

The action is nasty and efficiently choreographed, but Shivaay does not have the power of Taken, which never wavers from its blunt tagline, “They took his daughter. He’ll take their lives.”

Ice and warmth even each other out. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back trundles along on the comfort of knowing that America, and Hollywood, is safe as long as Tom Cruise is around.

The anti-Sikh riots in Delhi following Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 needed better writing, acting and nearly everything else.

The Paula Hawkins bestseller about gender battles and domestic violence is reduced to a thriller, and a not very effective one at that.

…adds up to nothing more than a crash course in profanity