Gerard Butler's Kandahar (2023) || Movie Review.

Most times when we talk about action/thriller movies we all know that most of the action scenes and stunts are not always realistic. We tend to witness goofs or unnatural action scenes that are humanly impossible unless one has superpowers or you are a shaolin monk. Even the monks have limits because Mother Nature keeps them grounded so no rules are broken to upset the balance of nature. In Gerard Butler's Kandahar (2023) movie', He brought to our screen the very possible natural action/thriller one could watch and not see no goofs or unrealistic stuff happening there.

It's been a while since I have watched Gerard's movie and immediately after seeing the first trailer, I was anxious to watch it. Since the time I started watching Butler's works, he has never disappointed, he always delivers and always keeps his fans/audience on their toes. There is never a boring time with him on the screen. It is always thrilling and exhilarating with him. From what I have said above you should know by now that I enjoyed this movie. So let's talk about the movie.

Kandahar (2023) was distributed by Open Road Films and it is an action - thriller movie that was directed by Ric Roman Waugh. The story was written by Mitchell LaFortune and it starred Gerard Butler as the lead character with Ali Fazal, Travis Fimmel, Navid Negahban, Nina Toussaint-White, Tom Rhys Harries, Bahador Foladi, Mark Arnold, Vassilis Koukalani,and Corey Johnson. The story of the movie revolves around Butler as he starred Tom Harris, an undercover CIA operative working in the Middle East as a maintenance guy on a secret mission but has to get out of the middle safe with his translator.

A Little About The Plot.

The story of the movie started with a scene that places Butler (Tom) in the middle East where he poses as a maintenance guy with a colleague in an Iranian nuclear research facility. Tom, who is a secret freelance CIA operative, was also on a mission to plant a malware device into an Iranian nuclear research facility. Successfully doing it, he leaves the research successfully without being detected by Iranian military securities. After a while the malware he planted did it's work by causing an explosion thereby destroying the nuclear facility research.

On the other hand, the Iranian government was already monitoring a British journalist who happens to be in Iran at the time seeking for sensitive information about their operation from a whistleblower in the CIA team handling Tom's mission. The Iranian government, upon hearing that their nuclear research facility was destroyed, quickly arranged for the British journalist to be kidnapped so they can find out who actually sabotaged their nuclear research facility from her.

Meanwhile, Tom was preparing to leave Iran through Dubai but discovered his flight had been delayed by his CIA handler, Roman. When Tom meets with Roman in his estate, he realizes Roman had a mission for him to complete. This mission came with a lot of money reward that could pay for his daughter's medical school fees. So Tom accepts to carry out the mission which would be in Herat, Afghanistan.

To make his job easier, Roman provided Tom with an Afghan-American translator, Mohammad "Mo" Doud. Unfortunately as Tom got to Herat to start the mission, his cover was blown, his images were all over the news revealing his convert identity. Now he is stuck in Herat. Tom and his translator must fight their way out of Herat to an extraction point Roman provided for them in Kandahar, while avoiding the special forces who were hunting them. Will they make it to Kandahar? You have to watch the movie to know.

My Review And Rating.

There are a lot of negative reviews about this movie and they are just basically emphasizing on the fact that the action scenes were not strongly portrayed. In my opinion that is not a good reason to give this movie a bad review. I don't blame the critics because they all are so used to watching unrealistic and unnatural action films so they expected more from this movie. If this movie was portrayed with strong action scenes I can bet you that the critics will still find a flaw in this movie.

My opinion about this movie is that it was well portrayed with the appropriate action scenes which made the movie a realistic story that's told with good emotional attachment. The movie didn't just portrayed action scenes all through but it also portrayed loss, betrayal, guilt, grief, pain and regrets. All these mentioned above are always experienced by humans once in a while in our lifetime, it is inevitable. These attributes and themes makes this movie very relatable to all the audiences who are not looking to satisfy their unrealistic cravings for a full action pack film.

My experience with this movie was amazing and I must confess the movie resonated with me. It was triggering though but I was able to connect all the characters to see the story of the movie through their eyes. I enjoyed watching this movie. It was thrilling and suspenseful to watch. I was on the edge of my seat all through the movie just waiting for the shoe to drop (the ending). The ending was gratifying for me. Every party of the antagonist got what they deserved at the end. So this movie was very much worth my time.

The plot of the movie was well created with actual realistic and relatable events. The storyline was written with good dialogues, good action scenes/stunts, and good suspenseful scenes. The scenes were well arranged, the action scenes well organized. The set befits the story of the movie, the costumes selected were perfect, the location also was perfect for the movie.

The cast of this movie did well, especially the main characters. The supporting characters, well, they did their best but I didn't really feel their presence that much throughout the movie. Maybe because my focus was on the main characters. Gerard Butler as usual did amazingly well with this movie. I think without him this movie wouldn't have made any sense. He acted his role with passion and he portrayed his character excellently well.

The second character that enjoyed his performance is Roman (Travis Fimmel). We all know him from the Vikings TV show. His performance in the movie is honorable. He stole the spotlight from Butler almost at the end of the movie. It was amazing, and I enjoyed his scenes because it was all gratifying.

Then we have Ali Fazal, our star from Fast and Furious 7. He acted as one of the antagonists, as a Pakistani assassin agent who worked alone but with a zeal to claim the bounty on the head of Tom and his translator. He was relentless, and adamant. He gave Tom a tough time. I enjoyed his role.

Rating this movie I will give it 4 out 5 stars. If you haven't watched this movie because of its negative reviews, let my review convince you and you will enjoy this movie. I will recommend this movie for action and thriller lovers.