Kandahar
I am in favor of a good Gerard Butler movie. As for the geopolitics part, I don’t think so. Actually, it’s even less when it is not juicy or full of actions.
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh (who guided Butler through 2019’s “Angel Has Fallen” and 2020’s “Greenland”), this picture has Tom Harris (Butler) as a CIA black ops agent planting explosives to stall Iran’s nuclear program in the opening scene. The film thinks that he is right. Later we know from his phone call on a rooftop that he is estranged from the mother of his daughter duh! because he is addicted to the job natch! And also that he has a limited amount of time to catch a plane to England, where he needs to be present at the graduation ceremony of said daughter.
In this year’s far superior “Plane,” also starring Butler, the character had exactly the same problem, only the daughter was graduating college in that one and this one looks like she’s just graduating high school.
Hm. Okay. How many stale ingredients does this script by Mitchell LaFortune have left? Let me count some ways. To Gatwick? Surprise: He doesn’t catch his plane there. Then he must team up with an Afghan translator named Mo (Navid Negahban), and, um, despite being Culturally Worlds Apart they form A Strong Bond which sustains and changes Harris’ mind about certain things, once their cover is blown they must get from wherever they are back to Afghan city referenced in title so they can then get back home or wherever they’re supposed to go, first car chase happens after 50 minutes of indifferent cloak and dagger.
Which is tracked by blah-blah CIA overlords in war room where much of their activity gets captured by drone cameras. When Harris pulls off fancy maneuver while driving pickup truck, one observer says, “I like this guy, he’s good,” like sports commentator or something.
In slow spot of action, such as it is, Mo tells Tom some stuff about the importance of getting to your kith and kin. “You have to go home and hold them in your hearts before you forget what it feels like,” etc. Do screenwriters think dialogue like this gets stronger the more you recycle it? Anyway. At Militia camp, Tom kicks back with a tribal leader acquaintance of his, who offers up this little chestnut. “The harder you try to stamp out an ideology, the stronger it becomes.” Duh. Mo recognizes this cat as a warlord who conducted campaign of slaughter in which Mo’s own son was killed and calls him out. This leads to standoff which doesn’t have juice that it aspires to. It also emboldens Mo to face down Tom about how misery in this region is because of interlopers such as United States fair point! but at this juncture in movie it comes across as lip service.
What’s remaining? Further pursuits, one of which seen in various types of night vision that do little else but confuse; some heroic selflessness from a supporting Special Forces dude, the stage being set for a face off with the mysterious motorcycle rider who has been tailing Tom since that initial car chase (Ali Fazal, still cool), and who wants to retire as soon as he kills this mark. That is to say all of the regulars. And they’re all feeling kind of worn out.
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