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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for pervasive language, some sexual content, drug use and violent war images.
Moral Rating: not reviewed
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: War Biography Comedy
Length: 1 hr. 52 min.
Year of Release: 2016
USA Release: March 4, 2016 (wide—2,300+ theaters)
DVD: June 28, 2016
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Relevant Issues

vulgarity

war in the Bible

What is the Biblical perspective on war? Answer

Featuring Tina Fey … Kim Barker
Margot Robbie … Tanya
Billy Bob Thornton … Hollanek
Martin Freeman … Iain MacKelpie
Nicholas Braun … Tall Brian
Sterling K. Brown … Sgt. Hurd
Josh Charles … Chris
Alfred Molina … Ali Massoud Sadiq
Stephen Peacocke … Nic
Christopher Abbott … Fahim Ahmadzai
See all »
Director Glenn Ficarra
John Requa
Producer Broadway Video
Little Stranger
Paramount Pictures
Distributor
Distributor: Paramount Pictures Corporation. Trademark logo.
Paramount Pictures Corporation, a subsidiary of ViacomCBS

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “This is an adaptation of journalist Kim Barker's wartime memoir, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Wanting to escape her boring life in the U.S., the female reporter moves to war-torn Afghanistan in 2002 and works as a journalist in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The film tells of Barker's arrival as a fish-out-of-water in Kabul, filing stories about militants, being a woman in wartime Iraq and Pakistan, dealing with boredom interspersed with dashes of violence and the promiscuous war correspondent culture.”

Violence: Extreme / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Heavy

Volunteer reviewer needed for this movie

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Negative
Negative—This so-called movie tries to channel M. A. S. H., but falls miserably short. Pseudo chick flick of a middle aged woman trying to find herself in Afghanistan. The main character is unlikable, crude, rude, irreverent and her supposed courage is dangerous and unrealistic. This movie mocks all that is professional(media, military, private contractors). Billy Bob Thornton as a Marine general? Billy Bob looks like a barfly who got makeover with a liberal marine haircut and mustache. I couldn’t take it any longer and quit ⅔ of the way. I am a Christian who believes in miracles, but this movie redeeming itself within the last ⅓ is unlikely.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3½
Michael A, age 53 (USA)
Movie Critics
…a sharp and engaging film… brilliantly told… Tina Fey is surprisingly sharp and funny… [3/4]
Kyle Smith, New York Post
…Nobility in a sometimes complicated time of war… very entertaining and heartfelt… [4]
Ted Baehr, Movieguide
…boldly entertaining… when Fey’s Kim finally realizes how hard she’s fallen for this dusty, despairing country—and how hooked she’s gotten on the adrenaline kick of being there—the sly complexity of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot slips into focus. …
Stephanie Zacharek, Time magazine
plays like a global-political farce made by people who’ve never left the Upper West Side. …Who on Earth green-lit “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot”? Who would be so tone-deaf as to create a wacky-but-earnest “personal growth” comedy/drama/romance about an American journalist—and set it in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, a place where that’s just about the last person we should be focusing on? …
Ty Burr, The Boston Globe
…as messy and ineffective as an Afghan suicide donkey… Film misses the rich absurdity of its subject… [1½/4]
Simon Houpt, The Globe and Mail
…Many of its offbeat touches ring true—because they are. …Fey is a good fit with the material… but if you’re looking for any real insight, you’re looking in the wrong place. [2½/4]
Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald
…shows the enjoyable virtues and severe limitations of a TV-comedy take on a complex subject with a serious core. …
Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
…Another foray into Afghanistan goes astray in Tina Fey comedy… while it’s no disaster, it’s oddly indistinct and uncertain…
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
…vulgar, hedonistic tale… Harsh language rains down on viewers even more often than AK-47 rounds in this film…
Adam R. Holz, Plugged In

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