Rock the Kasbah

This low-rent Bill Murray vehicle arrives in the UK trailing a smog of toxic reviews and disastrous box office. But ‘Rock the Kasbah’ isn’t the worst film you’ll see this year – it’s far less interesting than that. This is just your regular, run-of-the-mill misfire, a movie that probably sounded okay at the planning stages and might’ve been fun to shoot, but falls flat up there on the screen.

Murray wheels out his familiar oddball-on-the-skids shtick as Richie Lanz, former road manager to the stars, now reduced to working scams on talentless California wannabes. When he gets the chance to run a USO tour in Afghanistan, Richie jumps at the chance, only to find himself down and out in Kabul. His only chance is – you guessed it – a virginal Pashtun girl with the voice of an angel and shot at appearing on local talent show Afghan Star.

Leaving aside the galloping misogyny – ‘it’s worth the wait!’ Richie grins to the queue of GI johns outside happy hooker Merci (Kate Hudson)’s trailer – ‘Rock the Kasbah’ just isn’t remotely funny or smart, and none of the characters come within shooting distance of likeable (Bruce Willis’s muscular mercenary is particularly creepy). That said, its hard to find anything here to get truly worked up about – or maybe we just can’t stay mad at the Murray.