Rock the Kasbah

Director Barry Levinson and Bill Murray team up for the first time here, but this fish-out-of-water comedy is something of a misfire. Murray, looking more hangdog than usual, plays a washed-up road manager for old 1970s rock acts, who comes across a potential money-spinner when he starts to put on shows for the US Army in Afghanistan. It's unfamiliar and downright dangerous territory for someone used to showbiz tantrums. However, after losing his passport and cash, unlikely salvation arrives when he hears an angel-voiced young Pashtun woman singing in secret - and decides to confront religious traditions and get her on the nation's popular TV talent show. Similar real-life events were covered in the 2008 documentary Afghan Star, but in this clunky Hollywood frolic the liberation of Afghan womanhood plays second-string to the redemption of Murray's shambling hero. Not really credible as a comment on US foreign policy, and dismayingly light on outright laughter, the result singularly fails to charm - and even Murray's on faltering form. There's plenty of Cat Stevens on the soundtrack, but unfortunately no sign of the eponymous rock anthem by the Clash.