Abbas-Mastan, (just like Vikram Bhatt!), have made a career out of ‘Indianizing’ Hollywood thrillers. Usually their multi-starrer potboilers have entertained and hence succeeded. But their latest ‘adaptation’ (of the heist-film The Italian Job), Players comes up short and fails to be engrossing and entertaining.

A gold-heist planned by a hand-picked team of conmen, a daring train-robbery, the turncoat villains and the twists-and-turns. The story follows the typical heist-film rules.

 The production values are good. No efforts are spared to give gloss to the proceedings. Excellent cinematography, pleasing foreign locales and high-octane action-scenes are the high points of the film. But thanks to poor editing, the film loses momentum very early on. It is just too long with many needless scenes. The music is ordinary.

Often a good captain can turn a team of mediocre players into a good team. Abbas-Mastan fail to do that. Their ‘Players’ – Abhishek, Neil, Sikander, Bobby, Omi and Sonam just don’t have enough spark to ignite the screen. Bipasha looks hot and she is the only one who makes some positive impression. Abhishek and Neil- the two main characters, are predictable and woodern and just cannot justify their top billing. Even a proven performer like Johnny Lever (who usually adds quite a few chuckles to Abbas-Mastan movies) looks flat this time around.

Players belongs to that unfortunate category of films, which rely more on spending on thrills and frills, rather than investing in a taut narrative and better actors.