Directed by:
Peter BergScreenplay:
Matthew Michael CarnahanCinematography:
Mauro FioreComposer:
Danny ElfmanCast:
Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom, Ali Suliman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins, Tim McGraw, Kyle Chandler, Frances Fisher (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Thriller about a team of elite FBI agents sent to Saudi Arabia to solve a brutal mass murder and find a killer before he strikes again. Out of their element and under heavy fire, the team must join forces with their Saudi counterparts. As these unlikely allies begin to unlock the secrets of the crime scene, the team is led into a heart-stopping, do-or-die confrontation. (Universal Pictures US)
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Reviews (14)
The craft is excellent, Berg does a good job with the action, although it all seems so polished that it is impersonal. The schematism in the world vision can be carried away, you can feel how much the screenwriter tried to plastically see the problem. Not that it is completely successful - the overall message in the style of "we all have families and we love them, so we are just people" is pleasantly dulled by the final point. I don't know if the creators wanted to suppress that cleverly cynical message at the last minute, and I really didn't understand the choice of music. Given the acting and the really frenetic and swollen last twenty minutes, The Kingdom will definitely pay off... A mastered genre film, but Peter Berg still lacks considerable dose of individuality to achieve the brilliance of Mann or Scott.
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Total satisfaction. Peter Berg serves up an interesting story that looks at the issues of the Western and Arab worlds in a quite clever way. Visually, the film is top notch from the first to the last second, Jamie Foxx is superb, and the final action set-piece is something that makes you want to take cover from bullets. I can't wait to see it again.
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The Kingdom is a technically solid and, with the exception of the bittersweet ending, rather intelligent thriller. Dealing with the pressing issue of terrorism is as important for the film as the spectacular yet realistically portrayed action. In the end, however, it is clear that Peter Berg is more at ease with the action. It’s also a pity that the movie ends at the moment when it finally gets going. This leaves the audience entertained but not satisfied. In time, The Kingdom will become outdated like, for example, Rules of Engagement.
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I don’t share the artificially formed cult around Peter Berg in this part of the world (Czech Republic). I consider him to be a reliable routineer who understands technical aspects and is good at pumping a movie full of pace, but he isn’t so good at drawing you into the story. Although the producer’s name draws the attention. Judge for yourself - Michael Mann. Sounds promising, huh? The Kingdom isn’t an action movie and isn’t at all a “hamburger movie", or at least as little as a potential blockbuster can be. It says neither one thing or the other. You find yourself believing that this is more or less what things would turn out in reality if an FBI team were really to assist in investigations in an Arabian country. Luckily it didn’t descend into a big-budget episode of CSI with naive natives and unerring, great Americans. Everything from political tricks through division of power to differences in cultures is addressed pretty realistically here. Even so, The Kingdom has one fundamental problem. But it isn’t the actors, who are outstanding and especially the Arabs headed by Ashraf Barhom in the role of Col. Faris Al Ghazi. The problem is the forcibly and completely unnecessarily grafted-on closing action sequence. Don’t get me wrong, it was excellent, raw and gripping... But only on its own. It seems like fifteen minutes of the highlights of Black Hawk Down, but it absolutely destroys the message of the entire movie and fits in like... Like nothing on earth. Which is a shame, because it’s good, it just should have appeared in a movie of a totally different kind. At least the last two sentences of The Kingdom saves the originally intended impression and pleasantly aptly remark upon the preceding events.
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There is a category of beautifully trashy movies where the American president takes down ten terrorists in a man-to-man battle, then sits in the cockpit of a military plane and eliminates a missile base threatening the whole world with a precise hit. Similar movies are transparent, they don't pretend to be anything else, and in their stupidity, they are often surprisingly entertaining. Unfortunately, The Kingdom does not belong to this category. It is obviously a low-quality production, and the opening montage and the scene of the attack on the American employees' camp set the bar quite high. One then looks forward to a clever crime thriller, only to find out that the good part is already over, and with every subsequent shot, the film delves into all the imaginable clichés of action movies. In the case of The Kingdom, the core of success for film fans is represented by well-shot action scenes and the reliable acting of the participants, although routine. However, the film script exudes such indifference toward Saudi Arabian realities and such contempt for the local culture that it hurts; the American civilization's superiority is simply evident when American professionals have to teach their colleagues the basics of criminal investigation, including fingerprinting... I don't even feel right giving it 2 stars in the end. Overall impression: 25%.
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