Mickey Virus isn’t unwatchable, but at 2 hours and 15 minutes, it certainly overstays its welcome, offering little by way of laughs or thrills. I’m going with two out of five. Walking out of the cinema, you’ve forgotten it already.

It’s all fun up to a point, and despite a couple of amateurish edges, the director shows potential.

The trouble is that writer-director Saurabh Varma makes this story so unnecessarily convoluted and long that by the time we have the great climactic reveal of who did what, we don’t really care. The forgettable songs and synthetic leading lady – Elli Avram – don’t help. Neither does the somewhat forced desi dilli vibe – you know characters going on about siyapa and chand mar deni hai. Or the laughable scenes of hackers with names like Floppy and Chutney congregating.

Mickey Virus is an okay film that’s powered by its first half, when it is with Dilli ke bachche who wear funny T-shirts, speak sadak-chaap language, but are accomplished and cool. Varma’s Mickey Virus is the latest in a long line of films set in saddi Dilli. The film’s dialogue writers have very creatively used Dilli ki patent Hindi-Punjabi, and kept it funny and crisp. But for those not in Dilli state of mind, some topline words/phrases require translation:

Mickey Virus is two films divided by an interval. The first half is a marathon of the now (thankfully) defunct TV show Dil Mil Gaye and the second is a suave, well-scripted suspense.

If you have time to spare and the strength to tolerate the first half of the film, book your tickets now.

Despite the many virus attacks that the screenplay faces, Mickey Virus is a passable film.

Mickey Virus will appeal to Manish Paul fans who want to see him in a different role other than a TV show host.

Mickey Virus is quite a breather from the low IQ comedies we are subjected to on many Fridays. A tauter script, with more humor and a steamier story could have helped this film in rising above being merely a moderate entertainer. Side step your regular expectations, if you at all decide to give this film a shot. For a few laughs, a not-so-dull second half and somewhat interestingly made suspenseful story, Mickey Virus can count as an average, not a must-watch, but if you insist on going to the cinemas, this will be the sheenier one from the lot that released this week. I am going with a 2.5/5. Quasi original and sort of passable, I managed to sit through this one till the end!

Mickey Virus is one of those films that have an interesting premise and characters but ultimately, the whole is much smaller than the sum of its parts. It desperately wants to be hip and different but yet it falls in some of those standard Bollywood traps.

…the flaw in MICKEY VIRUS; the writing is plain juvenile. In the end, the writer feels the need of explaining each and every scene that preceded the climax. The audience too, is taken to be as daft.

…if stripped of all tripe treatment had the scope to be a thoroughly entertaining film but falls short and ends up disappointing the audience.

The problem lies in execution. Mickey Virus tries too hard to straddle the two worlds of cutting edge tech and laid-back teeny Delhi in a Bollywood film. This results in “hacking” that looks as if Andy Warhol designed the VFX.