Rock the Kasbah
Open Road Films (II) | Release Date: October 23, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
29
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
16
Negative:
17
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
58
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattOct 22, 2015
Your enjoyment of all this will probably depend heavily on your willingness to let the words romp and Taliban coexist for approximately two hours. The movie itself is slight and sometimes outright offensive, though it’s also intermittently amusing and not entirely unself-aware. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinOct 22, 2015
The oddball script by Mitch Glazer ("Scrooged"), as directed by Barry Levinson ("Rain Man," "Good Morning, Vietnam"), takes so long to bring Richie and Salima together, it deprives us of the kind of fully fleshed dynamic the story so desperately needs. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittOct 22, 2015
In its favor: a breakout performance from Palestinian newcomer Leem Lubany and maybe the most apropos use of Peace Train ever. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 22, 2015
Some projects are just too misguided for the star to mug and shrug his way out of. Consider Rock the Kasbah at the top, or the bottom, of that list. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickOct 22, 2015
A slapdash, sporadically funny cross between the infamous “Ishtar’’ and the mercifully forgotten “American Dreamz.’’ Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 22, 2015
Rock the Kasbah isn't respectful of truth, or consistently funny in the way it lies. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisOct 22, 2015
Levinson is careful not to make the Afghan people into buffoons, which is good, but it doesn’t change the fact that these folks are cardboard characters. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaOct 22, 2015
In the end, it is up to Leem Lubany, a beauty who hails from Palestine and made her debut in the 2013 Oscar-nominated foreign language film "Omar," to lend a much-needed grace note as Salima. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 21, 2015
The gaps between the hipster comedy of the star, the incipient sentimentality of the story and the gravely depressing reality of the setting provide tonal abysses simply too vast to bridge in Rock the Kasbah, an intermittently amusing but dramatically problematic mish-mash that careens all over a rough and rocky road. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 21, 2015
This lame, laugh-starved script makes him look like an Old Man — not a funny old man or a Grumpy old man (see the fine “St. Vincent” for that). Just old and not really up to trying too hard. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonOct 21, 2015
It’s "Ishtar" with the passion and sincerity replaced with a surface-level shrug. Read full review
42
The PlaylistNick SchagerOct 21, 2015
Rarely has a mainstream comedy boasting this much talent been so structurally amateurish, to the point that the film’s lack of humor seems a secondary problem to its more pressing storytelling incoherence. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonMar 14, 2016
Rock the Kasbah just isn’t remotely funny or smart, and none of the characters come within shooting distance of likeable. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaOct 22, 2015
There might be a decent movie in here somewhere, if the focus had been on the right character. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 21, 2015
Bruce Willis shows up, in full Bruce “yippee-ki-yay, mofo” Willis mode, to little effect, and while Hudson’s sassy camp follower is a hoot, there are just too many narratively bizarre subplots falling out all over the place. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 20, 2015
The film often plays like everyone making it agreed that some on-set idea was so funny it had to be included, whether or not it suited the story. Read full review
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