The Kingdom
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner
Director: Peter Berg
Genre: Drama and Thriller
Rated: R for intense sequences of graphic brutal violence, and for language.
Duration: 1hr 50mins
Plot: An FBI agent (Foxx) and his team are dispatched to a formerly off-limits Middle Eastern kingdom to find those responsible for a bombing that claimed the lives of American workers in Riyadh.

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My Review: While The Kingdom tries hard to reach its audience on a higher level than just a “good guys vs bad guys; shoot ‘em up” it fails to do so. One of the most interesting parts of Kingdom is during the credits intro as there is a 5 min history lesson starting from the birth of the Saudi nation and highlights important events as it builds toward the present. After that’s over you won’t really learn anything more because it’s mostly Foxx being cocky and demanding things in the foreign country. Since I had just watched Black Hawk Down and Syriana over the past week I was fully in Middle East conflict mode, but both of those films reached the human aspect in a much more defining way. The Kingdom tries to make a grand point about the perspective of each side through a dual view discussion of whispers and comes up dry and shallow instead.

Okay, so The Kingdom wasn’t the emotional, human story that I thought it might be, but that’s okay because once the action kicked in this movie really did well. Unfortunately that doesn’t arrive until the fourth quarter while we sit through (I hate to say it because every other review did it already, but…) CSI: Riyadh for an hour plus. Most of that time is spent with the FBI agents challenging the one Saudi that really seems to want to help as well as leaning back against the local traditions. With all their behavior it’s easy to see why Americans could be so easily disliked overseas. The bully Americans aside I definitely enjoyed the last quarter of The Kingdom and if I watched this again I’d just skip to that part.

The acting was very well done and I had no issues with the casting at all. Jamie Foxx, in the lead, comes across as brash, driven tough guy as he seems to do best. The supporting cast of Cooper, Bateman, Garner, and even Piven were all enjoyable though I think Cooper could have used some more time upfront considering his solid abilities. Peter Berg, who shows up early on as an FBI agent, does a decent job in the director’s chair, though having Michael Mann as a producer wasn’t enough to make this a great film. Now had Mann been the director I think we could have seen a stronger result.

Overall, The Kingdom was a fine movie, but it wasn’t great like I had been hoping. You won’t get a social examination here and the characters here are pretty shallow, but the story remains fairly plausible and the action will keep you glued. I’d recommend this movie at a matinee price or better yet a Netflix rental.

Keep an ear out for when Foxx calls Garner, “Jen”, rather than her character’s name.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
High Point: Last 30 mins were definitely very exciting
Low Point: Should have put Mann in the director’s seat

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