Kandahar

Butler is always good for the slick action movie, and has made a career as some of the most consistent action stars. While he never achieved anything compared to 300, it's hard to point a finger at a film that did not entertain.

Butler goes somewhat beyond his limited range in Kandahar with some success. There is a real attempt to create character and suspense, which is at points refreshing and at points boring. Nothing is revolutionary, the baddies get some lines of dialogue (be warned, you will have to read a lot of subtitles!) and there is some sad music playing, but that's about the extent of it. Richie's Covenant also tackles the same setting, with overall better results.

The ending is predictable and ridiculous, devolving into explosion city, but what did I expect?

There is about 20 mins to be cut from this, but it has enough going for it that I can forgive the draggy parts, and appreciate the attempt at substance.

7/10 - if your expectations are right...

Strong plot and promising action but falls short. Worth viewing if you like this type of film or Butler in general.

Butler's 'Tom Harris' and Fimmel's 'Roman' were strong, they provided high points. Bagheri's 'Parshand' didn't hit the mark.

Action scenes had moments of awesome. But odd timing of starts/stops during sequences made them confusing. Particularly when Roman rolls out of the vehicle during a pursuit scene.

Parshand pursuing main characters endlessly through the desert on a low range motorcycle was odd and not believable enough. Character did not seem ruthless. His scenes subtracted from the overall concept I was expecting and hoping for.

Kandahar is the second action-drama about Afghanistan I've seen in the last month. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is about the same subject matter. It's different but also very similar. I find it amusing to see the return of very similar movies released in the same year (think Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down). Fortunately, in this case both movies turned out great.

I enjoyed Kandahar and found it entertaining throughout. It has some cool action scenes that seem to emphasize realism. There is an action scene at night which had me complaining at first because I couldn't see much. I wondered why they didn't use some kind of lighting trick. But as I watched, I realized this is how it would look if I was in that situation, something I've never seen.

The action is only a small portion of this movie. But I was still invested because of the story and characters. There were scenes of suspense as well as slower character moments, but I was never bored. It does a good job of balancing many moving parts (different groups, races and motivations).

Watching this movie, I couldn't help but notice how far we've come regarding Islamophobia in action movies. I grew up watching action movies where brown skin = bad guy. And even worse, they were usually portrayed as gross and barbaric. Kandahar does a much better job of illustrating the complexity of the situation, how not everything is black and white, and how there are people within those communities trying to fight against what's wrong.

I think The Covenant does a better job of holding all sides (including our own) accountable, whereas Kandahar shows sympathy without ever asking for accountability. Even the main character does some bad things that are never addressed. I wish they went that extra step to show how detrimental the outside influences can be on these situations.

Nevertheless, I had a good time with this movie and am happy with how fairly and not one-sided things are portrayed.

(1 viewing, early screening Mystery Movie Monday 5/15/2023)

On the pro side, the photography was beautiful. There were some gorgeous desert shots, fly-overs of the cars that were enjoyable in their own right. Fight scenes were realistic enough to feel the sense of danger. Even the music was good and kept me wanting to feel empathy for the characters, but here's were the problem was. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to be rooting for the main characters or disappointed that they were making the same mistakes of their past. The whistle-blower reporter, was she a heroine or an ignorant meddler? Did the black-ops group do something bad or good? The medley of Iranian operatives, ISIS, Talaban, and a host of others all had their vague "bad-ness" about them, trying to kill the main character, but then they were just being used as well, so maybe I was supposed to feel badly for them. Am I supposed to feel bad about being the US forces attacking Afganistan? Our calamity of a withdrawal? Or am I just supposed feel like war is a mess of conflicting allegiances and there are no more clear answers any more?

Filmography/editing got this a 6/10 instead of the 5/10 that the writing deserved.

After the explosion i got lost in this movie. Everyone is against each other and all together are chasing the spy and the poor translator. Every force that passed ftom the region in the last 20 years (USA,Talibans,ISIS,Al Quaeda,Pakistan) are put in a mixer with no begging and no end. There are many plotholes and some times is slow paced. It is so tiring that i hardly kept myself of not falling asleep.

There are some good action scenes. Many collateral plots running together made the movie complicated. Nothing to compare to the Convenant. I'd rather compare it to "Plane",Buttler's previous movie.

Really,does Hollywood lacks of military and geostrategical advisors?

The scenario is like it is written by a 10 years old kid.

The duration should be max 90' no more because it is too tiring. It is from the kind of movies that i'd expect from netflix,and i would watch it only once.