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Gritty, graphic, and believable, this mostly steady-cam film bruises your sensibilities with a uncomfortable feeling of realness. After the queasy opening act of terrorism we are introduced to a FBI evidence team who is bursting at the seams to investigate the crime scene where two of their fellow agents fell. We see the immediate State Department reaction and the politics of keeping "The Kingdom" happy with our presence. After some clever "black mail" by Agent Jamie Foxx the team is allowed into SA to conduct their investigation.
Once Foxx, Cooper, Garner, and Bateman arrive in SA they are greeted by a Colonel who's mission is to button-down the investigation and render it ineffective. Events progress and we see a very real Arab world (filmed in Abu Dhabi) and the slow turn of the Colonel to the team's mission.
At a decisive point the film drops into "Blackhawk Down" mode and all hell breaks out. The action and flying lead will satisfy the most hardcore war-junkie as our agents pursue an abducted Bateman into a bad neighborhood.
This film runs the gamut of political and emotional intricacies and ends on a very strong point: We will never settle our cultural differences.
The film has its uneven parts and perhaps Foxx was miscast but overall it worked. Two big fat "ulululululu's" to The Kingdom.
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Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
Follow Ups:
...and while I enjoyed it, it could have easily been a TV show.
Decent popcorn movie.
I didn't feel any of the actors were miscast - they all complimented each other pretty well.
Chris Cooper was very good.
Jennifer Garner was there for eye candy.
I suspect the handheld camera is to give it a reality-documentary type of feel.
Three out of five stars.
> > I suspect the handheld camera is to give it a reality-documentary type of feel. < <
It's also the 'flavor-of-the-month', as far as camerawork these days.
...36 out of 47 stars.
(nt)
explosion.
Chris Cooper was sooooo out of place.
What a waste of one of our best actors. They should have just expanded his role. Nah.
That probably couldn't have saved this ridiculous script.
FBI guys going against the State Dept.'s orders and jumping into Saudi Arabia? Right.
This is a film written by guys with the world knowledge of eighth-graders.
Foxx speaks like a grunt and hardly like a highly ranked FBI officer.
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Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
x
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Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
If you've followed the activity here at all, you'll know that it's the San Diego critic that does my thinking.
Plus, two of the three I alluded to are in New York.
If you're going to slam me, please put a little effort into it -- otherwise you look risibly ineffectual.
clark
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Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
back say about 1980 and have you been in it recently? I saw BB King there around 1980 and seem to recall it being a vast cavernous space easily four times as broad as it is now. I've seen Robert Fripp there his last two appearances and while i did read something about a renovation i can't reconcile my memory with what i experienced present day. Thanks and now back to the character assassination,lol..
c
I think you may be the fellow who referred to The Bourne Ultimatum also as a "steadi-cam" film. This is not correct. The steadi-cam is a fancy rig that allows a camera to float while handheld as if coasting on air. Steadi-cam shots have a freer movement than dolly shots because they're mounted to a walking body, but steadi-cam shots are very smooth, almost to the point of being stylized.
What you're talking about are "hand-held" shots but without the use of a steadi-cam.
Elliot Berlin
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Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
...that in a matter of a couple of days two people described shaky hand-held camerawork as Steadicam...
I saw this several weeks ago, and while I enjoyed parts of the ride, I think it is mediocre.
I agree it ends on a very strong point . . . both sides villify the other and think they are totally justified in killing the other side.
The movie is so unbelievable. Of course, only the crack FBI team is up to the task of investigating this terrorist bombing of an American housing compound in "The Kingdom." The locals are too incompetent.
This investigation would take months. But they complete it in the length of the movie, which in this case, is 5 days.
These FBI agents are investigators, and while they may cross train with weapons, during the last 30 minutes, they are transformed into swat team par excellence.
Jennifer Gardiner adds little to the story. I just couldn't believe her character. Maybe she needs to be given a better part. I dunno.
And absolutely despise the excessive use of the "unsteady cam" camera work.
But because of the tone and feel it conveyed....this was good entertainment with a serious bent.
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Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
I saw your subject heading and thought of Lars Von Trier's Danish TV series "The Kingdom". It's a bad neighbourhood too :-)
David Aiken
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