259. Attack - Part One; movie review

 

ATTACK - PART ONE

Cert 15

122 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence, sexual threat

What do you get if you combine Robocop, Die Hard's John McClane and Mike Banning from the Has Fallen films?

Well, if you throw in a bit of Indian Spice the answer would be Arjun Shergill in Attack - Part One.

And, yes, Lakshya Raj Anand's movie is just as crazy, bearing as little scrutiny as all of the above.

Fulfilling the Peter Weller/BruceWillis/Gerard Butler combo is Bollywood he-man John Abraham, a one-man fighting machine whose mind is tied into an all-seeing, all-knowing computer.

The films follows Shergill from an opening operation in which he captures a terrorist (Habib Al Aidroos) but saves his suicide bomber son.

The latter (Elham Ehsas) turns out to be the scourge of India, leading high-profile attacks on public buildings.

His first is at an airport where Shergill's girlfriend (Jacqueline Fernandez) is killed and he is left paralysed.

The instinct for revenge seems impossible to fulfil until he is introduced by his boss (Prakash Raj) to a revolutionary system which will help him to walk again with the aid of an Artificial Intelligent implant in his brain.

So, after a risky operation and intense instruction of how to work with his Alexa-alike by a beautiful scientist (Rakul Preet Singh), our hero becomes a one-man army.

This turns out to be particularly handy when the terrorists attack the Indian parliament, taking 300 hostages.

Attack Part One leans on every cliche in the action-movie book.

Stupid politicians, crass one-dimensional terrorists, a couple of pretty girls and a fearless hero who is good to his mother (Ratna Pathak Shah).

Then there are the impressive special effects which probably make up the bulk of Attack Part One's very high budget.

Abraham does the job we would all expect - bursting with energetic machismo.

The problem is that it is all a bit daft - just like the aforementioned movies. Not quite as crass as the Has Fallen films but not a picture which demands a shred of brain power from its audience.

Reasons to watch: Its sci-fi storyline

Reasons to avoid: Its regular cliches

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 5.5/10

Did you know? In 2001, there was a terrorist attack on the Parliament of India in New Delhi. The perpetrators belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed - two Pakistan-raised terrorist organisations. Six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel, and a gardener died. The five terrorists were killed outside the parliament.

The final word. John Abraham: "We intend to make a part 2. We have got a script ready. You can only decide to make a part 2 when the studio part is on board. I can’t comment on the commercial success of Attack, as am no trade expert, but I can say that we have made a very good film. When you see our film, you will realise that our film needs to take the story forward." Pink Villa

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