Parents' Guide to Warhorse One

This action drama takes a selective look at the facts surrounding the U.S.'s withdrawal from Afghanistan and uses it as a setup for a repetitive series of cat-and-mouse shootouts. Warhorse One is clearly something of a passion project for writer, co-director, and star Strong. Strong plays Master Chief Richard Mirko, whose mission to extract U.S. missionaries takes a tumble when his team's helicopter is shot out of the sky. He survives this, obviously, and thankfully has enough left in the tank to gun down black-robed baddies who seem to re-spawn like characters in a video game. Which is just as well, because there certainly isn't enough plot to fill the movie's exhausting two-hour runtime. Other cardboard-cutout characters include a five-year-old American innocent -- played by newcomer Durner -- whose missionary parents' idea of a semester abroad is open to question. Amid the fetishized violence and dubious cultural stereotypes, we're also expected believe that the Californian hillside setting is a mountainous range in the Middle East. This really is excessive, and suggests Strong might be better off pitching his next endeavor a little closer to home.