In their third collaboration, Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen, Greenland) directs Gerald Butler once again, this time as Tom Harris, a freelance special operator working for the CIA. He’s a world-weary mercenary with a young daughter he doesn’t see enough and a wife demanding he sign divorce papers. We first meet him as he’s working undercover as a communications tech, but he’s really inserting malware into an Iranian nuclear facility.
That successful op leads his CIA handler Roman Chalmers (Travis Fimmel) to send him on another mission, this time in Afghanistan, but his cover is immediately blown, and soon he and his Afghan American translator, Mohammad “Mo” Doud (Navid Negahban), are in a race to an extraction point with Iranian security forces in pursuit, as well as Pakistani agent Kahil Nassir (Ali Fazal), a relentless and resourceful antagonist.
If, at this point, you’re thinking, “This sounds a lot like Guy Richie’s The Covenant,” you’d be right. Richie’s film is much better, but hey, if you’re an action junkie and you need to feed your habit, Kandahar is a serviceable flick with engaging performances and effective direction, it’s just not as masterful as The Covenant, which remains one of this year’s best. (119 min.)
—Glen Starkey
This article appears in Aug 10-20, 2023.