Time: 120 Minutes
Cast:
Gerard Butler as Tom Harris
Ali Fazal as Kahil Nasir
Navid Negahban as Mohammad “Mo” Doud
Bahador Foladi as Farzad Asadi
Nina Toussaint-White as Luna Cujai
Vassilis Koukalani as Bashar Hamadani
Mark Arnold as Mark Lowe
Tom Rhys Harries as Oliver Altman
Corey Johnson as Chris Hoyt
Travis Fimmel as Roman Chalmers
Director: Ric Roman Waugh

An undercover CIA operative gets stuck in hostile territory in Afghanistan after his mission is exposed. Accompanied by his translator, he must fight enemy combatants as he tries to reach an extraction point in Kandahar.

Recent Gerard Butler action movies range from average to pretty good, so I went into Kandahar expecting another fairly enjoyable movie. The only other thing I knew going in was that the plot summary somewhat resembled Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, which came out this year too. It’s certainly not on the level of that movie, but I still enjoyed Kandahar more than I expected to.

Plotwise, Kandahar is passable enough. It feels a little long and is quite slow, especially in the first act. This is definitely in part due to the large number of characters that the movie is keeping track of. However, it picks up in the second act. The story actually goes for more depth than I was expecting from it, definitely more serious and thoughtful than I was expecting. It somewhat delves into geopolitics and focuses on the human cost of the Middle Eastern war. It doesn’t go for an overtly patriotic feeling, and there aren’t any moustache twirling villains. As such, I appreciated the story, and it was interesting enough that I wanted to follow along.

The movie does benefit from the on point cast. Gerard Butler does Gerard Butler again, and he’s solid as always in the lead role. Navid Negahban plays the translator paired with Butler and he’s good too, Ali Fazal is a standout as a Pakistani secret agent hunting the two. Travis Fimmel is also really good in a nuanced and interesting role, if anything I found him more interesting than Butler’s character.

Ric Roman Waugh’s direction is solid, it’s pretty good on a technical level with some nice cinematography. The action is directed well; interestingly it doesn’t always go for big explosions in the forefront (even though the movie has those) and instead leans into being more of a dramatic thriller. It definitely has an emphasis of practical effects over CGI, and tries to make each set piece feel different from the last so that they feel fresh, the standout being one involving night vision.

Kandahar is a decent action thriller, entertaining, well directed, and with solid set pieces and performances.