A rocking first half, glam and glitz, great looking men and women, spectacular locales, extravagant making, adrenaline pumping action and of course, a solid brand that’s gonna make moviegoers flock the cineplexes initially, but the film lacks the sustaining power thanks to its uneven second half. The writing isn’t watertight, the film lacks a hit score, the climax is far from effective and overall, RACE 2 pales in comparison to RACE.

I went into Race 2 totally prepared to have a blast, but here’s the shocker: The first half is just plain boring.

One must then watch Race 2 for Saif, who with his polished dialogue deliveries and smart one-liners, Abraham, who has played a scheming businessman with aplomb and of course for all the three ravishing ladies who also know how to act.

Get ready for jobs that ‘blow’, bare-bods, chains, fists, fruits (of passion) et al.

This is a wreck of a movie strictly for action junkies who might be looking for a feverish two-and-a-half-hour ride that is far more giddy than heady.

‘Race 2’ looks exactly like ‘Race’. Which may have been intentional because plush locations and pretty playthings and buff men are very much Abbas Mustan trademarks. But all it does is cause a dismally same-same feeling. So much so that the new characters start feeling old within a few frames. Even the plot, which has a one-line pitch, Ranveer out to avenge the death of the love of his life, becomes subservient to the larger cause of looking glossy.

‘Race 2’ is a grand display of money. The adrenaline-pumping action is the plus point of the film, but too much of that does no good to it.

Watch Race 2 only if you want to sit through two-and-a-half hours of no-brainer twists, compensated only by the booty show on screen.

It’s not a film you’ll remember years from now, but you won’t be moaning and groaning through it either. The film has no intellectual pretentions; its only ambition is to offer a good time. In that, it mostly succeeds.