Akshay Kumar livens up the proceedings now and then, but a lot of it is just thookpatti in this Thuppaki remake.

That this film is still not as awful as most typical Akshay Kumar starrers, despite several such harebrained sequences, is to the credit of director AR Murgadoss, who doesn’t let something as insignificant as common sense come in the way of telling a convenient story. In Holiday, Murgadoss remakes his own Tamil hit Thuppaki and he doesn’t tinker with the blueprint at all.

‘Holiday’, the official remake of the monster Tamil hit ‘Thuppaki’, gives Akshay Kumar a chance to return to full combat mode. He plays a patriotic soldier willing to stretch a few rules in the line of duty, whether it is wielding sharp shears on a suspect’s finger, or shooting bad guys point blank. Till he’s going bang bang, he’s all right; the moment he gets romancing and joshing, he slides. So does the film.

Holiday is about the brave men and women fearlessly serving the nation and making sure you rest easy. The men and women who take on unthinkable odds, waking up and rushing to theatres first thing in the morning to catch a movie starring the hero and heroine from Joker and made by the guy who made Ghajini.

We watch, and we warn, so you may not have to. Because a critic is never off duty.

Holiday – A Solider is Never Off Duty is a superstar vehicle without a brain or a heart.

Holiday lacks the sustained intensity and urgency of an edge-of-the-seat spy thriller.

The script does not allow Akshay Kumar to be the no-nonsense action hero that would have held the film in better stead.

His lover boy act only dilutes the larger-than-life persona of the fearless and single-minded mean machine that he is supposed to be.

Watch Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty only if you are a hardcore masala film fan and can sit through three hours.

All in all the movie Holiday is an action packed entertaining ‘Akshay Kumar special’ which is surely a one-time watch if not two.

… fair watch for people who have not seen Thuppakki. For ones who have watched the Tamil film, this Hindi remake would not excite one bit.

If you are a 3A fan – Akshay, Action and Adventure, then this is a recommended watch for you. Rest all, please take a pass on this Bollywood movie. Yet another reason why you must watch Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, is the beautiful message with which the movie ends. Dedicated to all the Army personnel and their families, the movie salutes every person serving in the Defence forces keeping the nation safe and secure.

Holiday is a remake of Murugadoss’s 2012 Tamil hit Thuppakki, which I hear was fairly watchable. What happened then? Did Murugadoss try to Bollywoodise the perfectly fine story? Reminds one of that phrase—“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

I’d call my 3 hours in the movie hall a success, considering it is nowhere bad to what I expected it to be. Do I give a film extra points for that? Naah. It is just what it is. A casual TV watch if you chance upon it.

It’s pitiful, because even absurd storylines make for entertaining films if made with an ounce of cleverness and a little integrity. This is purely a rush job, one that – as it happens to the sleeper cells eventually – will turn you into a “coma cell”. And lead to such bizarre lines being written.

Bollywood’s original action hero lives up to his title and Kumar excels in those hand-to-hand combats. While the climax of Holiday is like Christmas for an Akshay Kumar fan with its over-stretched fight sequences, a non-fan might not relish the sound of bones cracking as much. Watch this if you are in the mood for a Bollywood film that has a bit of everything — terrorism, action and romance.