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
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerOct 23, 2015
Baby it’s a wild film, but not Murray’s best and not Levinson’s either. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 22, 2015
Director Barry Levinson and screenwriter Mitch Glazer lucked out getting Bill Murray to play Richie Lanz, a loser who makes losing hilarious. Murray just kills it. Read full review
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
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 22, 2015
Star vehicles this rickety have a way of making the world unsafe for comic democracy. Read full review
30
Time Joe NeumaierNov 3, 2015
Old-school Bill Murray, deadpan and gonzo, spices up the amiable mess that is Rock the Kasbah. That’s both a saving grace and a curse. Because while Murray and his laid-back riffs anchor this oil spill of a story, he needs a more tangible movie to latch onto, and all he gets is a mirage. Read full review
30
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 21, 2015
The cast of old pros (including Bruce Willis as a soldier of fortune) amble through amiably enough, but a few laughs here and there aren’t enough to make this movie come together in a satisfying way. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 22, 2015
This is an unholy mess — a jumbled, tone-deaf satire in which seemingly vital characters are introduced and then inexplicably disappear, never to return; superb actors disappoint by relying on old tricks they’ve used to much better effect in much better films, and every attempt at political commentary comes across as ham-handed and naïve. Read full review
25
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 22, 2015
Sexist, racist, overlong, dull, visually ugly and, worst of all, unfunny, “Kasbah” squanders its cast. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianJeff BakerOct 22, 2015
Murray blusters and hams his way through the first two acts before turning all mushy in the third. Read full review
25
HitfixDrew McWeenyOct 21, 2015
Walking out of the film, I might have given it a C+ or a C based purely on the fumes of Murray's better work that are present here, but the more I've thought about it, the more infuriating it is to see something this lazy and familiar from Murray at this point. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezOct 20, 2015
The film quickly settles into a depressingly one-note groove as a culture-clashing circus act. Read full review
25
IndieWireKate ErblandOct 20, 2015
Although no one comes off looking especially good, an acceptable alternate title for the film could be "The Ugly Americans," because Mitch Glazer's script takes some of the worst stereotypes about ex-pats and blows them sky high. Read full review
20
EmpireAndrew LowryMar 21, 2016
On paper, this could have been excellent; as it stands, it’s painful and futile for all involved. Much like the Afghan conflict itself. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 23, 2015
The air of mourning might have worked as a counterpoint to the silliness if Mitch Glazer’s script had smart gags, but as one-liner after one-liner misses its mark, you begin to feel sorry for Murray, who’s really too old to be playing a guy who has a little daughter (not granddaughter) and likes to get kinky with Kate Hudson as a raucous, Dolly Parton–style hooker-businesswoman. Read full review
20
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 21, 2015
A stunningly misjudged comedy, Rock The Kasbah stretches and strains Bill Murray’s deadpan nonchalance until it snaps, and what results is a singularly unfunny, often infuriating tale. Read full review
20
VarietyAndrew BarkerOct 21, 2015
Laughs are few, attempts at feel-good catharsis fizzle out limply, and all of Murray’s most elaborate performance setpieces — especially his endless rendition of “Smoke on the Water” for tribal elders — fall embarrassingly flat. Read full review
20
The GuardianJordan HoffmanOct 20, 2015
There’s a special variety of infuriating that comes from a bad movie by talented people. Read full review
12
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 22, 2015
Rock the Kasbah is a pandering, poorly assembled botch that thinks it’s playing fair by Afghan popular culture but only manages to add insult to the countless other injuries inflicted upon that country. If it were any worse, they’d be screening it as evidence at The Hague. Read full review
0
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 22, 2015
Clichéd, enervating, insulting — it’s tough to settle on a single pejorative for Rock the Kasbah, though abysmal might do. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 22, 2015
No one doesn’t love Bill Murray, but his melancholy torpor can wear thin in the best of circumstances, and these circumstances are pretty close to the worst. The cast includes Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Danny McBride and Scott Caan. No one escapes unscathed. Read full review
More From This Movie

29 Critic Reviews

4.1 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 Everything Everywhere All at Once
2 78 Top Gun: Maverick
3 75 The Bob's Burgers Movie
4 72 Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie
5 72 7 Days
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL