Movie Review: The Kingdom
The Kingdom (2007)–*
America kicks some major ass, but when it does, it contributes to an unending cycle of violence. That’s the basic idea behind The Kingdom, a disturbingly stupid political action film from Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg. While it targets the zealous fans of 24 and Tom Clancy, The Kingdom grounds itself in a reality it knows nothing about. Instead of trying to be obvious entertainment like the above mentioned works, it attempts to be an film that says something. It fails.
In the wake of a major terrorist attack on an American Housing Complex in Saudia Arabia, FBI investigative team leader Ronald Fluery (Jamie Foxx) insists on putting American boots on the ground. The State Department and the Attorney General are adamantly against having a U.S. presence on Saudi soil, knowing it will rile the Muslim fundamentalists who launched the attack.
Fluery (the Wise) decides he knows better than his superiors, even with the clouded judgment from the death of a colleague in the bombing. He decides to blackmail the Saudi ambassador into letting his team investigate for five days. With the help of a justice-seeking Saudi, Sgt Haytham (Ali Suliman), Fluery and his team (again, with only five days) set out to take down everyone involved in the attack, up to and including the enigmatic ringleader Abu Hamza (think little Bin Laden).
The Kingdom is a terrible, sentimental action film with aspirations of being a legitimate political thriller. It’s offensive to the intelligence of any thinking person, and in many ways reminiscent of Crash. The main similarities? Both films are ignorant of their own intentions.
I hate The Kingdom because of the naïveté one must have in order to find the film either plausible or affecting. Berg’s use of tired cliches to show that the good Saudis are just like Americans—shots of Saudi families reading books together or a Saudi son helping his sick Saudi father—don’t just only drip with sentimentality; they are pickled in it.
More excruciating is watching the likes of Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper, two talented, serious actors, contend with Jason Bateman and Jeremy Piven, two talented comedians. The comedy in this film is so inappropriate that I actually thank the terrorists for taking Bateman’s character hostage, if only to shut him up. Piven too seems out of place, playing the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia like his Hollywood agent character from Entourage.
Far be it for me to actually want my political thrillers be treated more like Bourne Supremacy than Team America: World Police. Hell, I would have even taken 24. But no. We get nearly two hours of parody taken too seriously and culture clash not taken seriously enough. Is it any wonder why some people hate America?
The Kingdom, starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman, directed by Peter Berg, starts Friday, Sept. 28, 2007 in theaters everywhere.
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