WHISkey TANGo FoxTRoT

(Cert 15; 112mins)

30 ROCK star Tina Fey, left, finds one of her better film roles to date in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, a slick black comedy based on The Taliban Shuffle, a memoir by news reporter Kim Barker.

Here the central character – now called Baker – swaps her comfortable New York life for the frontline in Afghanistan. Nobody could have been less prepared for a war zone than this clumsy, clueless woman with a bright orange rucksack that seems designed to make her a target for every trigger-happy sniper.

There are easy laughs in a world populated by cynical veterans like reporter Tanya (Margot Robbie), obnoxious photojournalist Iain (Martin Freeman) and General Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton).

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot tries to capture the sense of never feeling more alive than when facing death but some awkward shifts in tone leave it lacking bite.