Brief Story Line
As undercover agent working for the CIA on a covert mission in Iran, Tom (Gerard Butler - Plane, The Vanishing etc) was offerred additional task by his handler Roman (Travis Fimmel - Warcraft, Raised by Wolves TV series etc) in Herat, Afganishtan where he would be accompanied by translator Mohammad (Navid Negahban - 12 Strong, Aladdin etc). However, Tom's cover was somehow blown and various parties like the Iranian operatives led by Farsad (Bahador Foladi) and Pakistani agent Kahil (Ali Fazal - Death on the Nile, House Arrest etc) were trying to capture him.
Tom had no choice but to try and escape to Kandahar which was 30 hours drive while being hunted by so many people.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
This movie started off a bit slow and required a bit of concentration to know what the story was all about, especially in the first half hour or so where many characters were introduced to us. Good thing that my wife and I managed to understand them, although to my personal opinion it was a bit too detailed and would become boring for audience (noticed that some of the people in the studio were playing on their mobile phones).
Luckily after the cover was blown, the movie became more suspenseful and we could feel the tension as Tom and Mo were trying to save their lives. And surprisingly during the escaping, there were a bit of lighter moment involving Mo who was just a translator and unfortunately caught up in the crossfire. The action were not too spectacular to me but it was pretty effective and intense (that night chase was quite cool and the climax was nicely done).
As I said above, we were interested to see this because of Gerard Butler and without him as the lead, we would likely be opting to wait till it is released via streaming. He really fit in this kind of character so easily. I also felt that Navid and Ali Fazal were really suitable in their roles. But, I did think that one character was not really required, which was the journalist Lina Cujai. I have nothing against Nina Toussaint-White (Game Face TV series etc) but I really felt her part could have been omitted and we could still understand the story and lessening the overly detailed background story. Aside from those names, there were plenty of support cast in minor roles such as Corey Johnson (All the Old Knives etc) as CIA senior officer Chris Hoyt, Tom Rhys Harries as Tom's partner Oliver and few others.
One thing that I felt strongly here was the message that the movie makers tried so hard to deliver, i.e. the political and social condition of Afganishtan due to the involvement of US in the country and the re-rise to power of the Talibans which affected the people (as represented by Mo who had his own struggle and shown clearly in several scenes). This movie was written by Mitchell LaFortune and directed by Ric Roman Waugh who had worked with Gerard in movies like Angel Has Fallen and Greenland. So he was quite experienced in directing action films.
Overall this was an interesting enough action thriller movie with some actions that might not be over the top but quite enjoyable to watch. The story was a lot more complex than the usual Gerard Butler's action flick and disregarding the first one third of the film (which has duration of 2 hours), I think it was all right. Btw, there was no mid or post end credit scenes here in case you are wondering. So if you are into full action films, then this might not be satisfying for you. But if you are OK with some heavier and background story in a movie, then probably you would be entertained by this.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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