Kandahar provides some decent entertainment, but suffers from some slow pacing and a lackluster overall story. This one is available for purchase now, and soon to rent.
“In Kandahar, Tom Harris (Gerard Butler), an undercover CIA operative, is stuck deep in hostile territory in Afghanistan. After his mission is exposed, he must fight his way out, alongside his Afghan translator, to an extraction point in Kandahar, all whilst avoiding elite enemy forces and foreign spies tasked with hunting them down.”
Films taking place in the Middle East have always intrigued me, as the locations, the culture, and overall societal structures are so vastly different than anything I’ve experienced. Given how tumultuous the region is and how government powers continually shift, it can be a daunting task to navigate that world, let alone tell a story that tries to explain it to an audience in less than two hours.
Kandahar is a bit different, as it’s the first film set in the region, that I’ve seen anyway, that takes place after the U.S. left Afghanistan. Because of this, everything about the film has more of a threatening feel to it, giving it more of a suspenseful side that I was interested in while viewing. One thing in particular I enjoyed about the film was exploring the humanity on all sides, not just the CIA operative trying to get out of the country. His interpreter, an Afghan native, forces us to take an emotional look at the toll the war has taken on the innocents of the country. We also get to see family motivations of the men sent to track down Gerard Butler’s character, and how the violence in the region keeps everyone from their loved ones.
The film as a whole was a fairly entertaining one. Interesting locations, well shot, and certainly didn’t have the B-movie feel that I was expecting, with the action sequences done extremely well. This story is a fairly simple one, and thus doesn’t get overtly complicated, but that’s one of the issues. The story all-in-all just didn’t do enough to get me to care all that much about any of the characters involved, even the villains that were hunting Gerard Butler’s character down to sell to the highest bidder. Perhaps it’s because it is all-too real, with the conflict in the region never relenting. While this story is a straightforward one of two characters trying to make a rendezvous while constantly having enemies on their trail, it just doesn’t do anything groundbreaking in any way to make it stand out from the countless films just like it.
Kandahar can be an entertaining way to spend a couple hours, but honestly it probably won’t be a film that resonates long after it’s over, or is remembered. Still there are a lot worse films out there, and at least this one has some good acting, action, and a touch of emotion that will get you through.
We were given a digital code for this film to review. It is currently available for purchase on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital, and comes out to rent digitally on 8/14. If you enjoy these types of films, or Gerard Butler, you could do worse than Kandahar.
