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Commando 2 - The Black Money Trail (2017)

Directed by Deven Bhojani

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Overview

India’s most wanted Black Money agent, Vicky Chaddha, gets arrested in Malaysia and is kept in a safe house by the Malaysian authorities, along with his wife. A team of four is being sent to Malaysia to bring them to India. Apart from the growth of inter-personal relationships, the mission has quite a few twists and turns on its way. The story follows Karan as he uses his brain and brawn to recover all of the laundered black money.

Length 123 minutes

Actors

Viewing History (seen 1 time)


Date Viewed	Device	Format	Source	Rating
11/30/2019	TV	Streaming	Video on Demand	6 stars
				(Average) 6 stars

Viewing Notes

When I saw that Commando 3 was in theaters now and wanted to see it I realized that I still hadn’t seen Commando 2 (following Commando which I saw at Fantastic Fest 2013 and really enjoyed). Was happy that C2 was available on Prime. The primary reason why I hadn’t seen C2 was the negative reviews at the time (it did play a few theaters back in 2017 but I skipped it due to those bad reviews - mainly Josh Hurtado’s review which I trusted).

Now that C3 is out I figured I might as well give C2 a go now then go see C3 in the theater. Much to my delight, C2 isn’t that bad! Okay, it’s not a great movie by any stretch but it has a enough to be entertaining and keep my engaged. Vidyut Jammwal, Karan the Commando, is such a specimen even with some ridiculous fight choreography that he’s really fun to watch.

The premise of this movie is really out there with a crew of selected cops sent on a mission to bring back a criminal that’s swindled millions of dollars of “black money” from dead people in Delhi thru this crazy scheme of hacking their accounts and transferring the funds into a foreign account, effectively bankrupting their families. It’s farfetched but sure I can buy into it with these characters.

The femme fatale is Esha Gupta. Good christ is she a beautiful woman and perfect in that role. So as soon as the team of 4 specialists arrive and meet w/her and her criminal husband the double crosses begin and so goes the story. It’s kinda mean and cold-hearted, which gave an odd tone throughout. Also features three significant kissing scenes which was surprising. Guess Bollywood has lightened up on that aspect.

What I like besides the characters is the globetrotting to Malaysia then Thailand, where most of the movie takes place. The action beats are okay but edited so quickly when they didn’t need to be. But I like the point in the film when it goes full-on first person shooter a la DOOM. Just wish they did longer takes on some of the better hand-to-hand moments. There is one completely absurd sequence where Karan the Commando and Adah Sharma fight a bunch of dudes on construction stilts. I know someone thought this would be cool bc it hasn’t been done before but it makes zero sense why anyone would think guys on spring stilts would be better fighters than w/o the stilts.

Worth noting that I get annoyed when there’s an exaggerated fight move that is unnecessary when a simpler move could be performed. This happens a few times w/Karan w/some crazy ass kick that takes such extra effort to do. It’s like creating these silly sequences in attempt to just look cool on screen when it makes zero sense in a real fight. But whatever. I get it. You want to show-off your lead actor.

The finale is hilarious due the exposition dump on how everything transpired to get to the happy result (and yet another cold-blooded story beat). I was entertained and now ready to see Commando 3!

There are no musical numbers in this until the end credits. It’s just okay but funny to see since it really has no relation to the film other than putting Vidyut Jammwal and his two female co-stars in a dance routine.

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