Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot_720p(480P)

source: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

I'll try to summarize this crap show in the simplest way I can. There's a pretty white American lady, who just wants to get out of her daily life bubble. When she finally does and sees what goes on in the real world, she craps out and runs back to her homely own comfortable same old boring bubble. This was the most 1st world movie I have ever seen in my life. I urge you, Jesus Christ, do not go through this torture. As for the "story"? this movie literally has none! we're 3/4 our way in and THEN something happens, Martin Freeman gets kidnapped. By that time you'll get so bored, you wouldn't even care if an atom bomb fell on them and literally everybody died. Just save yourself and skip this one.

The good news is this movie is very funny and very tender, bringing back the very best of Tina Fey as Liz Lemon from her time at 30 Rock. The bad news is that if you've seen the extended preview at the movies, then you've seen most of the movie already. But it is a valiant effort from Fey and company at the life of a news correspondent trying to blow up her life into something new. In this case, as one of the few single people without children she gets the chance to go to Kabul in Afghanistan to report on the war there. This directly results in her character, Kim Baker (who is based on Kim Barker who wrote a book about her experience there as a journalist) getting the chance to stare death in the face and laugh, repeatedly, even when she shouldn't. Journalists from around the globe called such an experience spending time in the Kabubble, sheltered away and yet directly involved in the front lines. Fey's cohorts on the front line of journalism include Margot Robbie and Martin Freeman as well as a Marine Colonel played jovially by Billy Bob Thornton and the Attorney General of Afghanistan played incredibly not seriously by Alfred Molina. Baker arrives and gets thrown to the wolves and uses her I don't care about life attitude to get involved in a gunfight straightaway leading to her being embraced instantly by her peers. Much drinking and carousing ensues thereafter and everyone becomes very close. Not very close are Baker and estranged somewhere on assignment in America boyfriend Chris (Josh Charles) who gets caught cheating on Baker on Skype of all things. Suddenly finding herself single, she is drawn to the oddly charming Iain (Freeman) and a more serious side of the film ensues as a result of this new relationship. Its a different look at the war in Afghanistan from the side of the journalist though the reality of everything is still the same. It starts out very funny then has a long lull and could easily have shaved off 20 minutes from the nearly two hour running time. Though enjoyable there is little about this movie that screams out to be seen on the big screen. I'd wager this is much more suited to a night of Netflix or Red Box. Source: http://www.megashare-viooz.net/whiskey-tango-foxtrot-2016.html

"WTF" was a rather fruitless exercise in storytelling--it had no real message it wanted to get out there, virtually no character development, and probably no target audience. First, it portrayed the reporters and other foreigners as sociopaths and wholly debauch, juxtaposing the suffering of the Afghan people with the extravagant parties of the unapologetic Westerners and those aligned with them. I kept waiting for an arc that "Hey, maybe these people will change their ways and genuinely be sympathetic to the natives' issues," but that arc never came. In the end, I don't think I walked away from the movie any more sympathetic to anyone, I even ended up disliking virtually every character by sheer inability to relate to them. Who was the target demographic? It had many lines in the movie solely in Dari/Farsi, which I do speak, with subtitles only appearing sporadically. Its main message seemed to be "Afghanistan sure isn't fun, am I right guys?" but, who can relate to this? We can all imagine how bad a war torn third world country is, and save 1.5 hrs. It also portrays itself as a black comedy, using the Afghans as a crutch. That's not to say that's not OK--it simply was so wildly unoriginal that it didn't even register as humor. For example, comparing the burka to a Ziploc bag has been circulating Facebook for nearly a decade, but that didn't stop a lazy writer from plugging that into their already bloated, dry film. Another example of the comedic crutch is that some Afghan thinks a black Marine is Russian, because heaven knows Afghans don't know where black people come from, despite many Afghans making yearly pilgrimages to Mecca, where they run into many black Africans. And the only real "comedy" that comes to mind which is not wholly reliant on mocking Afghans, is when Fey's character really needs to pee badly, and it's funny because she has to stop the whole platoon, and it's seriously funny no seriously you guys I swear (actually, I forgot it does end with an Afghan crutch, with Fey's character snidely reminding her translator that girls actually pee too, since he--a damned doctor--and his culture oppress women so much they don't even let them pee or realize they pee). I suggest you go out and actually converse with an Afghan instead, instead of mocking people you know nothing about (they literally had an Afghan watching goat *, what in the goddamn) I can only recommend it if you want to reinforce your belief that all Afghans are complete idiots/perverts and something something journalism is hell. I give it a 2/10 because I actually sat through the entire thing, if only to see what poor excuse for comedy or biopics Hollywood still spits out in this day and age; plus, the performances were fine, but the script is such a travesty that I couldn't even forgive it. But, I will be avoiding films with performances by any of these cast members, which is a shame, because I liked Molina and that Hobbit fella. Oh well.

As my daughter would say, that's two hours I'll never get back. Personally, I love Tina Fey and this may be better than some of the movies she has made in the past, but that's not saying much. The movie was created to give you feeling of what it was like to be a newspaper correspondent in Afghanistan during the war, and it does a pretty good job of that, but there is no good story to go with it. Although the camera wasn't necessarily jumpy, I felt the movie was with a lot of chaos making up most of it. I told my wife after the first half hour there would probably be 20 minutes of an enjoyable move in here someplace. I didn't measure it exactly, but the last 15 minutes or so was pretty good. It's not worth the price of admission for that 15 minutes. The two excellent movies we saw this week were Revenant and Race. I highly recommend Race as an enjoyable time to spend two hours, and would give it a 7.5. Revenant, my wife and I gave a 9, but it is not for all tastes. A lot of it is gruesome and not easy watching. However, if your stomach is up to it, you prefer a really well made movie, and you can deal with some gore, go see the Revenant. It should be seen in the theaters.

I'm a fan of 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, so when Tina Fey's name was attached to this movie I knew I wanted to see it. More than that, knowing it was based on the memoirs of female war correspondent meant I probably would have seen it anyway. I want to read the book. I've read the reviews here and agree with the many insightful positive comments on the movie. There isn't much need to go into them in detail, so I'll summarize what I liked most: A chance to see what it's really like to be an embedded journalist in a war zone, including the partying, but also the more realistic aspects, such as dealing with network executives responding to public indifference. I liked the focus on career rivalry/friendship between the two women. As many other women, including Fey herself, have observed, usually women are portrayed either as romantic rivals or enemies, while good looking women especially are portrayed as empty headed or mean, and marriage or man obsessed. I liked the movie's emphasis on career as a source of satisfaction and growth. The movie has been criticized because it allows Fey's character a romantic/sexual interest. Somehow that ruins the movie's "integrity" as a feminist story for some. Why aren't career women allowed boyfriends? It felt more true to life than the type of rom-com relationship women are usually allowed; either a one-night stand (that results in hilarious pregnancy) or a happily ever after. The real triumph was her success at the end, which by the way neatly turned the tables on the "damsel in distress" story. I loved it and it was worth seeing for that alone. It's worth taking your tween or princess obsessed daughter (who is old enough for mature content) to see. I enjoyed seeing Fey get a chance to grow as an actress, especially a 40-something one. They don't take her too far into drama or tragedy territory; just enough. The movie has gotten some criticism for using a Western actor, Christian Abbot, to play an Afghan role, her translator and fixer. I went in prepared to dislike that. However, I could see that they chose to cast an actor with the range and depth they needed, rather than the ethnicity. It works. The scene where he tells her why he no longer wants to drive for her broke my heart. It was so sweet and his Fahim had so much depth. So, all the things I liked. Here is the one thing I had a problem with: The portrayal, or lack thereof, of Afghan women. This probably reflects the book, which I haven't read. At the same time, they added other aspects that weren't in the book. A real missed opportunity comes when Kim is asked into a room full of village women. They take off their veils. The camera stands behind them. We never see their faces. This could have humanized these women in one shot and we miss it. She comes out later to report what they told her, but we never hear them speak. It was a real disappointment. If any group of people needed a voice in this story, it was the women of Afghanistan. But anyway, see it. I did, and I'm sure I'll watch it again.

Wow. If I wasn't already a fan of Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey, I sure am now. The same barbed wit is evident throughout Whiskey, Tengo Foxtrot (military acronym for What the F***), but this isn't a skit. Tina Fey portrays a nuanced character, a low level employee of a network news department who makes an impulsive career move and ends up as a war correspondent in Afghanistan. Doesn't sound entertaining? It probably wouldn't be without the amazing touch Fey puts on her character. While it's not a war movie, it certainly captures the hopelessness of a culture doomed to perpetual war in the arm pit of the world. Afghanistan ultimately gets dismissed as a place undeserving of American military support, or even interest. The people shoot each other and blow each other up in conflict over interpretations of their medieval religion, and the movie correctly concludes "who cares"? But the Americans and individual Afghanis touch each others lives in ways that transcend cynicism. Fey and her Saturday Night Live co-producer Lorne Michaels find humor and humanity in ways that make you root for all the characters. The movie has no dull moments, and the pacing keeps you in your seat. Like Afghanistan itself, there were potential landmines of preachiness, boring politics and hopelessness...and WTF avoids them all. There are subtle, brilliant, and stereotype breaking supporting roles by Billy Bob Thornton, Alfred Molina, (Spiderman 2), Margot Robbie (Wolf of Wall Street) and Martin Freeman (whose correspondent character is as far from Bilbo Baggins as Kabul is from New York.) Three cheers for Tina Fey, who manages to give us entertainment and a smile while showing us how lucky we are to be Americans. WTF could have been boring and preachy, and instead gives us a feel good movie from the most unlikely place on earth.

This film is categorized as a comedy, but believe me, it is not. Not an more than The Martian was a comedy. Sure there are a few jokes here and there, the burqa scene was the only part I actually laughed at because it was clearly intending to lampoon the idea. Apart from that, it's the same old dry humor you would expect from Fey but without any payoff. This film is a drama with the lead character being a comedian. War films are becoming less popular as we drain the bottom of the barrel here, ironically this is a plot point for the film too. It's as predictable as you would expect and way too long. After an hour I was ready for the film to be over, but realized we had another 50 minutes to go. Slow pace, not funny and just boring. Three stars at best.

This movie is totally worth a prime-time ticket and a big popcorn. Then get the DVD to show it to friends. No scenery/FX worth a BluRay. Some folks question changing the excellent title of the book on which it is based to: WHISKEY, TANGO, FOXTROT. That phrase may not be as well known as what it translates to ("What The Fsck,") but wondering-then-figuring-it-out does get attention. The sales cycle Attention/Interest/Desire/Action is thus well served. I suspect that "Foxtrot/Fsck" in a movie title with Margot Robbie's character admitting she knows she's a "15" in AfPak and then "usin' it" in the trailers, sets an expectation that we'll see at least as much of her as we did in say, "The Big Short" or "Wolf of Wallstreet" and that sells tickets. Ms. Robbie has a lot of well deserved "body confidence," which by itself did not sell me a ticket - but it didn't hurt either. Co-Producer Fey wants to tell tickets, yes, but she has told us a story and she wants us to see it. A 5-star business decision, say I. The movie shows what happens when you mix a stone-age culture with modern weapons from the POV of a New York Girl/Journalist. Neither book or movie have suggestions on what to do about AfPac. It does however help us understand what "The Graveyard of Empires" is all about.