Gerard Butler’s latest is competently made, but as a tale of espionage and escape it comes across mostly obfuscating and tedious than insightful and compelling.
Kandahar stars the Greenland and Plane actor in brooding, gruff form as a CIA operative who gets in a sticky situation after a stint as an internet specialist for the Iranian government. Movement to Afghanistan has him retaining a translator in Mo (for Mohammad) done by David Negahbin as they’ll attempt to reach the eponymous extrication location.
Angel Has Fallen helmsman Ric Roman Waugh and scripted Mitchell LaFortune (a former intelligence officer) just can’t provide much vitality or emotion to the proceedings in part backs of the episodic quality of the pursuits that finally leads to an explosive conclusion.
Some grace notes to what has befallen many locals during a long conflict with warlords, insurgents and the Taliban can’t rally do justice to what is dramatically flat. As Butler’s Tom Harris is a stock figure with an estranged wife trying to race back for his daughter’s graduation. Negahbin and Ali Fazal as a motorcycling assassin for the Pakistanis turn out to be more interesting characters.