Rock the Kasbah
The best scene in Rock the Kasbah comes after the movie is finished when the end credits are rolling, at which point Bill Murray, still theoretically “in character,” barters with an Afghan merchant over the price of a stuffed elephant. It’s great. The merchant knows exactly two words of English, but Murray bounces from thought to thought like a champion prizefighter—all while juggling an armful of props and managing the game-but-clearly-bewildered extra. It’s exactly the sort of scene you’d expect to pepper a Murray vehicle helmed by industry veterans like director Barry Levinson and writer Mitch Glazer. It’s too bad the rest of the movie isn’t like it.
by Ben Coleman