If your identity has been exposed and your picture is all over the news, do you continue to look exactly like you look in the picture or do you shave your beard and head and wear different clothes? Maybe even add a scar? And if you're attacking a car from a helicopter, do you attack from the front, or from behind and to the left? And tell me how with no survelieace at all, you know the exact location of a car your chasing? These are but a few of the flaws in the film that detract from taking it seriously.

It has good photography and good music, and the direction is good, giving us an idea of just how crazy this war was/is.

Greetings again from the darkness. The tough road this film faces could be blamed on the unfortunate timing of release on the heels of a similar story in GUY RITCHIE'S THE COVENANT; however, that's not the only reason the latest collaboration between Gerard Butler and director Ric Roman Waugh (ANGEL HAS FALLEN, GREENLAND) will likely struggle to find an audience. Other obstacles include a script with entirely too many storylines and character arcs that dead end, as well as an overall lack of intensity when it was necessary.

Since the script was written by Mitchell LaFortune, and drawn on his personal experience as a Military Intelligence Officer in Afghanistan, the lack of intensity and danger is quite surprising. Gerald Butler does Gerald Butler things here. He has patented this type of character in the same manner that Liam Neeson has perfected his familiar action hero. This time, Butler plays CIA Operative Tom Harris, whom we first see working at gunpoint to assist in bombing an Iranian nuclear facility. When his mission is exposed by a whistleblower through a female British journalist (Elnaaz Norouzi), it seems half of the middle east is contracted to kill him ... and the reporter herself is kidnapped.

Soon Harris' handler (Travis Fimmel, LEAN ON PETE) throws enough money at Harris to motivate him to perform one more mission before he heads home to a graduating daughter and a divorce-seeking wife. This "one last job" means Harris and his new interpreter "Mo" (Navid Negahban, "Homeland") are on a road trip through the desert trying not to get killed as Mo searches for his missing sister-in-law. There are some cool drone shots showing the endless miles of desert desolation and some night vision goggle sequences that are better than what we've seen before, but the big-time weaponry doesn't make up for too many characters and crummy music. To his credit, director Waugh doesn't lean on an excess of action sequences.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the movie is that it was actually filmed in Saudi Arabia. Of course, that parcel of rare trivia doesn't make up for the feeling that this film is just a bit too familiar with too many unfinished story lines.

Opens in theaters on May 26, 2023.

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)