Hyena Road (2015) User Reviews

NO, HYENAS AREN'T FUNNY

[MadamWarden · 7/10 · 23 July 2020]

This is a pretty well made little movie about the complexities of trying to understand cultural norms of a country thousands of years older than the conquering force. I liked that there was no judgement, just a simple, if somewhat disturbing, portrayal of this difficult circumstance.

Solid acting, realistic action and fairly good character development.

An interesting watch.

Big-Screen worthy

[uncle_booga · 7/10 · 17 October 2015]

I found the film to be somewhat adrift as far as the theme and the storyline. There didn't seem to be much of a resolution, rather a way to end the film. If it's supposed to be an analogy of the current situation in Afghanistan, well we get that "It's not one war, it's a lot of little wars" message earlier on. It would make a superb pilot for a series centered around the Intel guy (Paul Gross). I found the scenes within the CP interesting: radio procedure has changed dramatically in the 40 years since I was in the infantry. But the only scene I found totally authentic was the "dance in the desert" scene. This sort of thing does happen spontaneously within a tight knit group. And the patrol procedure and snipercraft were off in my opinion. The "Ghost" character was my favorite. I liked the fact that no subtitles were used and that, like the soldiers, we had to listen to the interpreter. I would liked to have seen his character developed. The artillery scenes were authentic and dramatic, but it was the only time I've seen the gunners get a target round on the first shot. The small arms combat sequences were excellent. Total confusion like always. All in all, I enjoyed it, and I recommend it.

interesting 2 see war from a Canadian standpoint ( C+Movie ) My Ratings 8/10

[THE-BEACON-OF-MOVIES-RAFA · 8/10 · 21 February 2020]

It explores the depth of the decision making in a never ending war. It shows how the "right call" may not be the right one in the long run and how its not black and white as people like to see it. Paul Gross creates the amazing story from great research. The love story is a bit hard to watch and Sutherland's acting leaves a lot to be desired, but it tells a story that needed to be told, with built in drama, twists and great comedic relief.

A war tale told in a balanced way, from a uniquely Canadian perspective

[lhunt-9 · 1 November 2017]

This is an outstanding war film. As others have commented, it examines the Afghanistan conflict in a particularly Canadian way --- which means that each character has a distinct point of view and a unique place in the world. The film makes clear not only that each understands his/her situation differently, but also that each viewpoint merits the full weight of our attention and consideration. Both the nobility of sacrifice and the utter senselessness of war are captured. There have been many well-made recent films about our current conflict with the Islamic world. This is certainly one of the best of them.

"Hyena Road": Canada isn't just for limp maple leaves

[jdeureka · 7/10 · 4 February 2016]

One thing that makes "Hyena Road" excellent is that the film continues a cinematic and literary tradition of the Canadian ability to fight back, of intelligent opposition. In popular literature this goes back as far as Robert Service. In film it goes back to the (serious) Royal Mounties movies and to such Hollywood blockbusters as "The Wild North" (1952) and Stewart Grangers' character of Jules Vincent. Because Canada has become such an appendage to the USA in modern times we forget how outstanding the fighting ability of these people and their institutions can be. I do Not write this as a Canadian, mind you. But as an objective, non-Canadian who was very impressed by the combative intelligence and cross-cultural savvy of "Hyena Road". This is a sleeper. This is a keeper.

Watchable, but only just, as a movie; more suitable as a TV special.

[sam-102 · 6/10 · 7 August 2016]

Can tell a lot of effort went into production, and a sincere effort was made at authenticity...but still comes off as a movie that doesn't take itself very seriously, played by actors who take themselves perhaps too seriously. At times I wasn't entirely sure this wasn't a deliberately tongue-in-cheek drama with the aim of a little awkward comic relief; however, neither one works well as it is neither here nor there. Perhaps soap-opera-ish would be a good descriptor in terms of overall production value, not content per se'.

The combat scenes, while not poorly acted or choreographed, still come off as a little bit staged. Sometimes it's just the little things, like uniforms not being quite dirty enough after soldiers were supposedly rolling around in the mountains for a few hours; sometimes the mountains look a little bit more like the Arizona Rockies than Afghanistan. Sometimes The Afghani villagers look a little bit too clean, well fed, and smooth-skinned to be actual Afghani villagers. The way the Taliban swarm en-masse, hail-mary style is just not how they tend to move tactically in the real world. Like I said, the little things. the sniper scope reticle they give us a peek through is, thankfully, not the usual nonsense with all sorts of colors and numbers and flashing lights, as is seen in some movies. it's not the standard Mil Dot reticle, but at least it's half believable.

Ultimately, on a budget, just so much can really be put into production. overall, not a terrible movie, perhaps as an amateur military historian who's watched more than my fair share of combat helmet cams, I'm a bit more tuned in to the minutiae. So be it...overall, I'd give it a 7 for effort, and a 5 for final product, so at 6 I think is a fair score.

Hyena Road Review

[keithlovesmovies · 6/10 · 22 November 2015]

Ryan (Rossif Sutherland) is a Canadian sniper who tries not to think of his targets as human. He's also in love with his colleague, Jennifer (Christine Horne) who together try to lessen the constant danger that comes with their jobs. When Ryan and his team Travis, Hickie, and Tank (Allan Hawco, David Richmond-Peck, and Karl Campbell) are surrounded by the enemy, they take refuge in a small village. In this village, they meet a legendary former mujahid known as the Ghost (Neamat Arghandabi), who saves their lives. When Ryan tells intelligence officer Pete (Paul Gross) about him, Pete insists on meeting him. He agrees to help them but the kidnapping of two girls from his village threatens to complicate their mission.

If you didn't know already, I am a Canadian. This film depicts (more or less) our army. Maybe it exaggerates the level of our involvement in Afghanistan but it probably would have been a very boring film otherwise. I have seen a lot of war films but I don't think that I have seen any Canadian war films (because all of the others are predominately American) so this would be a first for me. It ultimately makes no difference what country the film comes from. For a war film, the story isn't too original here so don't expect any surprises in this one. I found the pacing in this one to be a little weird where character seemed to alternate between being out of their base and engaging Taliban and being within the base and just talking to each other about things. I was hoping for a little more fighting because the moments when the characters were within the base to be quite boring because I did not particularly care about the characters besides the character of Pete played by Paul Gross since I thought he had the most depth when compared to all of the other characters who had little to no depth and I enjoyed his interactions with his Afghani friend Abdul (Hekmat Bavari). It's funny that this is the case seeing that Paul Gross wrote and directed the film. I thought the war scenes were well done in that they were well shot and I liked the sound design involved. They also did a good job capturing the tension involved with being a sniper and the uncertainty after things went wrong (and they sometimes did). Despite the base scenes being boring and not caring about most of the characters, I still thought Rossif Sutherland was okay as Ryan, albeit being cliché almost the entire time. Christine Horne as Jennifer was okay but I didn't think her character was necessary to the story (except for something I will not spoil) as it did not add anything to it and her relationship with Ryan did not work seeing that they had no chemistry together. What annoyed me was during certain scenes involving conversations between Afghani characters, there were no subtitles so I had no idea what they were saying. The only time I did was when there was a translator in the scene. I found the tone of the film drastically changed near the end which did not make sense to me. Overall. this comes nowhere near the great war films but it should moderately entertain.

Score: 6.5/10 keithlovesmovies.com

Atmospheric Arghanistan Combat Thriller.

[zardoz-13 · 7/10 · 27 May 2016]

"Passchendaele" actor & director Paul Gross' Canuck military actioneer set in Afghanistan "Hyena Road" is an above-average combat movie with sturdy performances, solid production values, but its standard-issue message that 'war is hell' is its only drawback. Donald Sutherland's son Rossif Sutherland plays Ryan Sanders, an officer in charge of a team of snipers while Paul Gross casts himself intelligence officer Pete Mitchell. Sanders believes that one shot can make the difference, but Mitchell has a more cynical attitude to warfare. Everything revolves around a high ranking officer's decision to build a road through the Kandahar Province. The first scene, where Sanders and his team drill a Taliban fighter who is trying to booby-trap a road, is riveting stuff. After they perforate the Taliban fighter, the poor slobs slumps down into a kneeling, prayer-like position. As our guys withdraw, they notice some curious looking spots on part of the paved highway running through the barren desert setting. Sanders orders a sniper to shoot at the spots, but nothing happens. When the sniper fires an incendiary round, the entire terrain vanishes in a huge explosion. Sanders and his team scramble out of the area and soon find themselves pursued hotly by several Taliban fighters wielding AK-47 assault rifles. Our heroes make it to the refuge of a house after a Taliban with an RPG accidentally blasts a hole into a doorway in the wall surrounding the house. According to Sanders' description of the man in the room with them where they hole up, the individual sounds like a legendary freedom fighter known as 'the Ghost.' Meanwhile, back at headquarters, Mitchell listens intently to Sanders as he describes their benefactor, and Mitchell is convinced that this is the same native who help oust the Soviets from Afghanistan. Mitchell wants to recruit the Afghanistan man to the cause. At the same time, few know Sanders has been having a secret romance with a headquarters communications officer Jennifer (Christine Horne of "Survival Code") who fears that the brass will learn about their romance and cashier her. Jennifer and Ryan agree to keep their affair off the grid. The conflict intensifies not only when Jennifer discovers that she is pregnant with Sanders' child, but also when Sanders plunges back into the desert to kill more enemy.

The violence is sporadic, but graphic. Heads are shot off and drenched with gore. Comparisons between "Hyena Road" and Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" are inevitable. Nevertheless, despite its romantic subplot, this is a movie worth watching with a downbeat finale.

Excellent War Movie

[briantaylor-26472 · 10/10 · 14 October 2015]

Well done to Paul Gross and the cast of Hyena Road for creating an authentic Canadian war movie. Being a Canadian Army officer, I had to go see this one in the theater. It was an opportune time as I was able to go with my son, a 2nd year economics student home on his Fall break.

The movie was entertaining, emotional and educational. Hyena Road weaves the perspectives of war fighters into an telling story of the character of the Canadian experience in Kandahar Province. It keeps you engaged throughout with a mix of action, soldiering and the very human dimension to conflict.

"Inside the wire, we think about what to do outside the wire. We get it wrong fifty percent of the time which means we get it right the other fifty percent of the time" and " We have to remember that the end state is not for children to fly kites" were themes that stuck with us as we drove away from the theater.

Thanks Paul,

Major Brian Taylor, Canadian Army

What a pleasant surprise!

[hoss_jamison · 7/10 · 1 February 2020]

Well made movie. Lacked Hollywood glitz, it was very believable and I did enjoy the character development. I felt a need to give a total "neutrals" review of this. This will be a movie I return to from time to time.

The plot was good; and in that forsaken land of Afghanistan, I really got to like the Afghanistan people as well, well, at least a lot of them, not the terrorists of course. That war is so brutal and it's been in the upswing the last few years, it certainly seems.

Nice third world vibe. I could easily name some much more well known war movies I think this is better than. What's the fuss?

An Uninspiring, Confusing Mess.

[northoffilm · 3/10 · 29 October 2015]

I went into the movie really wanting to like the film. I strongly support the Canadian film industry, however, Hyena Road was a disappointment.

The start of the film was exciting and well paced despite being pretty predictable, however it was the middle of the film that fell off the tracks. It was boring, confusing, and overall pretty flat. Many of the plot developments were pretty predictable and the characters were flat, like really flat. I began to become confused as the story went from dialogue scene to dialogue scene which became boring and repetitive. I had no connection to the characters and couldn't tell you anyone's name. The end attempted to get the wheels spinning by using love to get the wheels going, but it was very cliché.

The action scenes were sloppily executed as the camera was awkwardly shaky. Storm troopers look like marksmen compared to the dreadful aim of every foe until the final battle.

The movie was boring, cliché, and overall a very uninspiring film that attempted to capitalize on the market for patriot acts.

Excellent Film. See it.

[gkpearson41 · 10/10 · 10 October 2015]

This is excellent film about modern warfare with convincing battle scenes, ramped up tension and incredible locations. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? Very hard to tell in Afghanistan as Canadian soldiers do their duty, to little effect. In my view it is a superior film to the much hyped American Sniper. The performances were all very convincing and Paul Gross's direction was swift and to the point. The atmosphere of working in a very foreign land for the Canadian soldiers is very apparent. I found I cared about what they were doing, as I was frankly trying to figure out their mission. If you enjoyed films like Zero Dark Thirty or The Hurt Locker, you should see this film.

Compelling Canadian Film on the war in Afghanistan

[t-dooley-69-386916 · 7/10 · 18 April 2016]

This is a true war film; it starts out with some serious and well realised action and manages to maintain the calibre throughout. It is set around the work of a sniper an intelligence officer and the locals. Set in Kandahar province where the Canadian Army fought, along side her allies, to secure the area for five years. It deals with the violence, corruption and the human side of the conflict and is all done within the microcosm of the effects this has on those involved.

It was written, directed, and stars Paul Gross and whilst I generally feel that you should never be so involved in a project there can be exceptions and this is one of them. The acting is all above average and the special effects are very convincing. It also manages to keep up the tension levels throughout. The relationship angle could have been stronger but the overall package somehow makes up for any perceived shortcomings.

It is in English with some Pashtu but that is not translated and for the context of the film does not need to be. If you are a war film fan or just like a story about ordinary people coping in extraordinary times then there will be a lot here to find of interest.

So far from Afghanistan I forgot what it was like when I was there.

[usarmyd_miller · 1/10 · 17 October 2016]

I know their were Canadians who did combat operations in Afghanistan, but unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to work with them. I absolutely know they would hate this movie though. They way the Soldiers were portrayed in such a cliché way, to the horrible one dimensional representations of the Afghans. All the great user reviews from the Canadians here, do yourselves a favor and go talk to one of your veterans...and not someone who worked in the TOC or someone who claims they are a war hero, go talk to an average grunt who went out on patrol everyday and saw action a handful of times because this is the fantasy type crap that creates s**t ideas of what war is like.

Heart touching war movie

[dennysukartono · 7/10 · 28 October 2019]

Make it list best action movie ever.

Unwatchable

[swurly2008 · 10 February 2018]

How many reviews did these people pay for? There's no way it honestly got this many 10 star reviews unless we weren't watching the same movie. Many of the problems with this movie have been stated in other reviews so I won't beat a dead horse. D movie at best.

Well worth watching this movie

[Saul_Ander · 7/10 · 1 February 2016]

As a big Fun of war movies, I watched this movie because of its poster. I give it a rating of 7 because the efforts made in the movie was more then most top rated Hollywood movies would make, when it comes to war movies, about Afghanistan. The choice of locations were amazing, no way Afghanistan would look anything different. Director's work was super.

what let the movie down was, choice of actors, especially the choice of actors playing as Afghans. I think the only best choice was the "Ghost" as to me he is more look like, talk and act like Afghans would. the rest might have been wrong choice. some even spoke Arabic while acting as afghans. However this is a big problem in movie business world because of luck of good cultural advisers, therefore I still give it 7 because the story and cinematography was much more closer to the reality of Afghan war.

Pretty good

[rachaelblakeegypt · 7/10 · 11 March 2016]

I thought this was pretty damn good, but then I like war films where the protagonists aren't always flawless and righteous no matter what they do -- morally ambiguous is what I'm going for here.. Mostly the story revolves around the military aspect of building the title road, from the snipers and soldiers on the ground laying protection and scouting, to command relaying information and shaking hands, to intelligence playing chess with what information they have. From my understanding at least some of the footage was taken on a trip to Afghanistan, and it seems most of the cinematography was adjusted to match that, which while irritating at times did add to the overall effect. On the other hand, while I'm sure such things happen on base, the romance subplot was unnecessary as it added nothing but some melodrama to the plot. The narration, while somewhat informative, really did feel out of place, as I don't care about Alexander the Great's story; if they wanted it there for background than it would have been better as a story in dialog. Those aspects aside, I found this much more palatable than 'American Sniper', a film which gets worse the more I think about it.

Source: http://www.megashare-viooz.net/hyena-road-2015.html

A decent war movie

[reallyadriel · 6/10 · 14 December 2016]

Note: I have seen this movie for "Xbox's Free Movie Weekend" that took place on the weekend of the August 5th. So I did not pay for this movie nor I did not pay to see this movie.

The movie is "R" of course; there is gore, chopped off heads, body parts flying off, etc. It's your typical Army movie gore that makes you say, "Dammmmnnn." Hyena Road doesn't really have that many intense moments like with most Army related movies nowadays, you get a few, one or two major fights and that's about it. The acting is average, the plot was decent, the twist (can be expected) and the dialogue between characters could have been better. In some parts of the movie it was/it can be predictable, but I just wished it ended differently (but you can't change "inspired by true events" history).

On the Xbox app (where I watched it), there aren't any subtitles for when the people are talking. This more or less takes you out of the movie moment and confuses you at times when these characters talk. Maybe there are subtitles on different movie outlets, but I didn't see any on the Xbox app.

Hyena Road is nothing horrible, but it's an average war movie that you "don't need to see," but if you do see it don't expect too much.

Hyena Road: a new Black Hawk Down.

[niutta-enrico · 10/10 · 28 January 2016]

This film is catching, engaging. Characters are nice and well played: a sharp sniper unit, a beautiful lady captain, bad and good Afghans, a smart intelligence officer… in the end I felt a little bit Canadian (at least in the heart) myself.

The title road perhaps actually exists, or perhaps not, it's not clear. The Toronto Sun says that 'Hyena' is one of the nicknames of a road Canadian troops built in Kandahar province during the war...

In any case it's not Ridley Scott's but watching this film I had the same feeling of true war (true fighting) I had watching 'Black Hawk Down'. And, although due, this is a big compliment nonetheless.

Not Worth the Tunnel Toll

[nancyd-5 · 5/10 · 15 October 2015]

I'm a US citizen who travels to Canada about once a year to check out a Canadian content movie that sounds of interest. I'm not a huge fan of war movies to begin with, but thought I'd give "Hyena Road" a try. It wasn't as horrid as "Passchendaele", but still left a lot to be desired.

Much of the dialog was hard to hear and/or comprehend. Rossif Sutherland, in particular, failed to impress and needs elocution lessons if he wants to star in any future films.

The movie was meant more as a "day in the life" movie than a scripted plot, which can be fine. It seemed that given that, we really didn't need the romantic subplot yet again, which Paul Gross seems to feel is essential in any film. It ruined his first war flick, and was unnecessary in this one.

The best acting in the movie was done by Christine Horne. She was very good. I also enjoyed the "Ghost" and "Cleaner" actors. As previously mentioned, I did not care for Rossif Sutherland in the first outing I've seen from him. Everyone else did a decent job, but nobody was outstanding. That sums up my thoughts on the movie.

Decent, but not worth the money to see it on the big screen.

Excellent movie about Canada's involvement in Afghanistan

[nickcw-1 · 10/10 · 29 January 2016]

Paul Gross took a few risks in making this movie about Canada's military campaign in Afghanistan's Kandahar province--"the birthplace of the Taliban" and pretty much a hornet's nest for the tiny Canadian NATO force that tried to secure the region for five long years.

The movie is thoughtful and subtle, rather than offering beginning-to-end war movie entertainment, and it focuses on people and some of the impossible personal and professional choices they're forced to make in complex and unforgiving situations--on both sides of the cultural divide between occupier and occupied.

In this the movie isn't afraid to show that some of the all-too-human choices turn out to be the wrong ones, or that the protagonists can declare personal guiding principles and then contradict them in their professional response to circumstances.

For the most part, the movie avoids setting up two-dimensional characters in a good guys-bad guys scenario; however, it failed in this respect regarding the Taliban, who were reduced to nonentities worthy only of being killed wholesale--much like the Somalis in Blackhawk Down.

As in Blackhawk Down, and a slew of similar tales about recent Western military action against foreign countries, Hyena Road treats the local resistance to foreign occupation as almost an affront to the well-meaning efforts of "our" noble warriors. But presumably it wasn't made for Afghan audiences.

To fully appreciate the movie, it helps if you know something about Afghanistan's past forty years of foreign military occupation and civil war, and also if you know something about Canada's military--where the personal and the professional are never far apart. I believe this quality is one of the things that makes the Canadian Forces so good in the field: they're not trained to be machines; they're trained to be fully human warriors--which I felt the movie illustrated very well in the relationships between the Canadian protagonists and the veteran Afghan fighter, with admirable understatement by Mr. Gross.

Hyena Road is less entertainment than it is an education about aspects of personal warriorship and about Western nations' activities in foreign realms most of us know nothing about, but about which many of us hold strong opinions nevertheless (oh yes, and the action scenes are pretty riveting and authentic-looking!). I think Paul Gross succeeded very well in what he set out to do with Hyena Road.

Enjoyable movie.

[AJ_McAninch · 7/10 · 12 May 2022]

Recommended. This is a good Canadian action movie set in Afghanistan, well-directed with a competent cast, and likable characters the audience cares about. I enjoyed it..

Decent action but lacking everything else

[xlittlelionmanx · 4/10 · 31 January 2016]

The dialogue in this movie wanders knee-deep in cliché, the camera work is mediocre, the costume design sloppy (I almost thought the movie was a comedy when the Ghost was introduced), the plot has major holes, and the only decent performance comes from actor Christine Horne.

That aside, the flick works as a war movie with a little less "'Murica" than what you usually get. Of course the baddies never hit anything but apart from that the combat scenes have a realistic feel to them and are therefore able to bring a little bit of tension to the whole thing.

So if you're gonna watch this just for the action you'll get some value for your money, if you're looking for any form of artistic skill you'll be left disappointed.

An outstanding portrayal about the war in Afghanistan

[SusanShop · 10/10 · 10 October 2015]

Paul Gross has written an amazing story, using Canada's involvement in the Afghanistan wars, as the vehicle. As a Canadian I couldn't help but be drawn into the events that occurred in the film. I have no doubt that, while the story and characters are fictional, the feelings and actions are real. Gross' ability to intertwine the politics of the Afghanistan people, the requirements of our military contingent, and the costs of war were exceedingly well done. I want to acknowledge the military presence of all the European countries and the United States who were there as well, and I can imagine that similar situations occurred. Paul Gross is Canadian and this film is definitely a Canadian perspective. You have to see this film.