Escape from Afghanistan (2002)

OK, the first 20 minutes or so you think you are watching an uninspired and poorly-acted b-movie about a western journalist becoming entangled in a dangerous war situation. Top that with a heap of cheap and easy atmospheric special effects and you will find yourself preparing for a long and tedious 90 minutes ahead. But be patient, just wait and get absorbed in the grim, strange and spooky world of a forgotten small-scale war episode, where people become mad and pathetic psychopaths. The madness of war in all its dark glory.For a while I was wondering whether I was watching a foreign (i.e. non-American) movie which had been dubbed into English, but I couldn't figure out whether the actors were speaking in a foreign tongue or not. As I understand now, this movie was made by a Russian director (who also directed the great Night Watch) and features almost only Russian actors. The acting looks bad because of cheap and useless American post-production. It's a strange world...

This movie is the most annoying movie that I've ever seen. The only action-part is when the Russian prisoners start to run, and someone (I don't remember who) shoots them down. BORING!!! All of the music in it is bad, and it has some STUPID "interviews" with the Russian soldiers. They mostly go like this: The Russian soldier says:"Don't leave me here!" so a stupid guy yells:"GET OUT!GET OUT!I DO NOT HAVE THE TIME!". Also, the film was dubbed in an awfully bad way; the sound is sometimes out of sync with the people talking in the film.After watching this film, I found out that this film is actually a 1994 Russian art-house film called "Peshawar Waltz" with almost only Russian actors, which explains this version was dubbed. The lead actor (a British man named Barry Kushner) is actually the only non-Russian actor in the film.When I was watching this movie,I (really) fell asleep, which usually never happens to me while watching a film. So I woke up and I saw some "SOVIET" helicopters. Well I guess they were not Soviet, but just Stock models. Even "Fire over Afghanistan" is better than this movie. Please, DO NOT WATCH THIS CRAP!!!

I've watched the first 40 minutes of the dvd version, completely bored i turned it off. What a waste of time! The movie starts with a simple prologue, after that there are a lot of explosions, gunfire, fights and chaos in dark corridors. Besides the "Get the hell out of here" action plot it was the terriby dubbed, completely "un-lip-sync". My opinion: low-budget, chaotic crap, don't waste your time watching/buying this.

What a disappointment. ESCAPE FROM AFGHANISTAN had the potential to be so thrilling and engaging, but since the acting was so flat, it made it unwatchable. The overall filmmaking was mediocre at best. Too bad since it is so topical right now.