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Amazon.co.uk Review
Set in Saudi Arabia, The Kingdom is a political action thriller with good acting and wonderful visuals. Its so-so script, though, at times meanders aimlessly until a good explosion jolts the viewer's attention back to the screen. Jamie Foxx stars as FBI special agent Ronald Fleury, who leads an elite team into Saudi Arabia to find the terrorists who attacked American employees working in the Middle East. He has been given the unlikely deadline of five days to infiltrate the compound, with just his wit and his crew, which includes forensics expert Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), explosives guru Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), and intelligence analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman). It's unclear how helpful smarmy U.S. diplomat Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) will be, but Fleury knows enough to surmise that the media-hungry Schmidt might not be completely trustworthy. Foxx and Garner have wonderful screen presence, but it's Bateman and Piven who get the best lines. Director Peter Berg peppers The Kingdom with actors he has worked with in the past. Berg, who guest-starred on Alias opposite Garner, casts Tim McGraw in a small role here. (The country singer also had a co-starring role in Berg's 2004 film Friday Night Lights.) And Kyle Chandler and Minka Kelly--two of Berg's lead actors from the Friday Night Lights television series, , make appearances in The Kingdom. The action sequences he creates are impressive and generate a sense of panic that The Kingdom producer Michael Mann (Miami Vice) undoubtedly applauds. While a tauter script would've rounded out the action nicely, the action in many cases does speak for itself. --Jae-Ha Kim
Synopsis
Actor, writer, and director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) delivers a fearless, action-packed political thriller with The Kingdom. Shot in the Middle East with unsettling immediacy, the hand-held cameras put viewers right inside the action, while the tension between American FBI agents and their Saudi counterparts maintains an interesting uncertainty about who's 'right' and who's 'wrong'. The bad guys, however, are unmistakable: the film opens with a brutal terrorist attack on an oil company compound in Saudi Arabia, where a visiting FBI agent is killed. Back home in Washington, fellow agents Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx, Ray) and Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner, Alias) want revenge, and will do whatever it takes to gain access to the investigation. Fleury all but blackmails a Saudi prince to get clearance against the wishes of a timorous attorney general, and flies overnight to the scene of the crime. Accompanying him are the no-nonsense forensics expert Mayes, Southern-fried bomb authority Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper, Adaptation), and smart aleck Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman, Arrested Development). Once there, they encounter the resistance of a Saudi government more interested in getting the Americans safely out of the country and avoiding conflict, rather than in solving the crime. They are assigned a smarmy handler with a weak stomach (Jeremy Piven, Entourage) to make sure they stay out of trouble. The team must navigate a maze of bureaucracy to begin collecting evidence, but they have an unlikely ally in their Saudi escort, Colonel Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom, Paradise Now), a scrupulous and intelligent officer whom Fleury befriends. Soon enough, procedure and protocol give way to car chases and explosive fire fights, and the bleak political climate of extremism and violence is portrayed in a stark light with no easy answers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The movie starts sets out its stall right at the start, with the titles overlaying a potted history of Saudi so far, and how we came to the present time and the tenuous `alliance' between the US and Saudi. From there we have a terrorist event which takes place in Riyadh, targeting Americans, so that the FBI feel the need to send a team, led by Jamie Foxx, and including an unlikely but strangely believable crew including Jennifer Garner (Alias, Elektra) and Jason Bateman (Arrested Develoment). They have to work closely with the at first distant Saudi police Colonel whose job it is to protect them.
What follows is akin to any of a number of TV `procedural dramas', overlaid with the political backdrop of trying to function in the unique environment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That is, until the last act of the movie, which then becomes a straight, but very effective, action movie. Indeed, the action is some of the most thrilling seen for some time - while the hand held camera approach is somewhat annoying during the build up and political backdrop being established, once in the action scenes there is a visceral quality to events that really make you feel part of the action. You can feel yourself ducking when the characters do, in effect!
Is it a politically aware movie spreading a message about Middle East relations? Well, yes and no. It is in most ways a straight forward thriller, done fairly well. Indeed, once the action starts, you pretty well know how the rest of the movie is going to go. However, the Saudis are not just presented as two dimensional bad guys, but a multi-tiered and multidimensional society, which is in itself an improvement on many other contemporary movies on a similar topic. And the final few minutes do espouse a level of political message not evident through the rest of the movie, allowing for some level of pondering and bar stool conversation after the movie has finished.
A decent thriller then, with just a touch of commentary on the subject of Saudi-US relations.
What follows is akin to any of a number of TV `procedural dramas', overlaid with the political backdrop of trying to function in the unique environment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That is, until the last act of the movie, which then becomes a straight, but very effective, action movie. Indeed, the action is some of the most thrilling seen for some time - while the hand held camera approach is somewhat annoying during the build up and political backdrop being established, once in the action scenes there is a visceral quality to events that really make you feel part of the action. You can feel yourself ducking when the characters do, in effect!
Is it a politically aware movie spreading a message about Middle East relations? Well, yes and no. It is in most ways a straight forward thriller, done fairly well. Indeed, once the action starts, you pretty well know how the rest of the movie is going to go. However, the Saudis are not just presented as two dimensional bad guys, but a multi-tiered and multidimensional society, which is in itself an improvement on many other contemporary movies on a similar topic. And the final few minutes do espouse a level of political message not evident through the rest of the movie, allowing for some level of pondering and bar stool conversation after the movie has finished.
A decent thriller then, with just a touch of commentary on the subject of Saudi-US relations.
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The opening sequence of The Kingdom documents the history between the US and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it only serves to pull you in from the get-go.
When the movie itself starts we see an American housing compound in Saudi Arabia being attacked by terrorists. The carnage it leaves behind includes many dead Americans. While the FBI investigates all incidents where US citizens are killed the politics of Saudi Arabia means the FBI can't just walk in. However, stings are pulled and the FBI are invited to observe the investigation.
The one thing I'll give The Kingdom is that it refused to dumb down its story and make the Saudis appear as little more than window dressing to a big screen American shoot-'em-up. While Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman all get top billing, the real star of this story is Ashraf Barhom who plays Saudi police Col. Al-Ghazi. Al-Ghazi was at the scene of the initial attack on the compound and throughout the film we see him as a man dedicated to his profession, with an acute sense of fair play, protocol and justice. Initially he is given the role of babysitter to the FBI agents as the Saudi's aim to restrict their movements. However that all changes when the FBI are invited to a meeting with a Saudi Prince. Given free reign to investigate the bombing their way the movie really kicks off as the audience is treated to a top notch story that touches on everything from culture clashes, forensic revelations, kidnapping, religious doctrine, and the self perpetuation of hate, all of which culminates in a final half hour of riveting, vicious, blood spattering action.
I've just returned from 10yrs living in Saudi Arabia and I was intrigued to see The Kingdom if only to see how accurate Hollywood could get everything that is Saudi. I was stunned to see that they had it spot on in every way - from the attitudes towards Americans to the uniforms of the compound security The Kingdom hit the nail on the head in every way. All combined The Kingdom is a really good action thriller with history as it's basis. Excellent.
When the movie itself starts we see an American housing compound in Saudi Arabia being attacked by terrorists. The carnage it leaves behind includes many dead Americans. While the FBI investigates all incidents where US citizens are killed the politics of Saudi Arabia means the FBI can't just walk in. However, stings are pulled and the FBI are invited to observe the investigation.
The one thing I'll give The Kingdom is that it refused to dumb down its story and make the Saudis appear as little more than window dressing to a big screen American shoot-'em-up. While Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman all get top billing, the real star of this story is Ashraf Barhom who plays Saudi police Col. Al-Ghazi. Al-Ghazi was at the scene of the initial attack on the compound and throughout the film we see him as a man dedicated to his profession, with an acute sense of fair play, protocol and justice. Initially he is given the role of babysitter to the FBI agents as the Saudi's aim to restrict their movements. However that all changes when the FBI are invited to a meeting with a Saudi Prince. Given free reign to investigate the bombing their way the movie really kicks off as the audience is treated to a top notch story that touches on everything from culture clashes, forensic revelations, kidnapping, religious doctrine, and the self perpetuation of hate, all of which culminates in a final half hour of riveting, vicious, blood spattering action.
I've just returned from 10yrs living in Saudi Arabia and I was intrigued to see The Kingdom if only to see how accurate Hollywood could get everything that is Saudi. I was stunned to see that they had it spot on in every way - from the attitudes towards Americans to the uniforms of the compound security The Kingdom hit the nail on the head in every way. All combined The Kingdom is a really good action thriller with history as it's basis. Excellent.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is an odd film. The first section has a very well executed terrorist attack followed by lots of Americans who need to go on an Anger Management course after they've left the Expletive Deleted programme. By means of some very dodgy plot devices the FBI team arrives in Saudi to encounter all the differences of being in another society - all of which keeps coming as a surprise to the team. Whoah dude, I don't think we're in Kansas any longer! Then in the second section the plot starts to build into an episode of CSI as the clues are hunted down at a rate which makes even the X-Files appear slow. Finally, we have an excellent shoot-out with overtones of Blackhawk Down and Band of Brothers. There is a genuine excitement here, missing in the conversational scenes. The film does try to address the differences between US and Saudi society, but it has to do so while at the same time doing other things. It overreaches itself in this laudable aim.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Oh dear
Came across this 'film' the other day on TV and was intrigued to see that they seem to have made a live-action re-make of Team America World Police.
Utter tripe
Utter tripe
Published 6 months ago by exitpursuedbybear
One of my top 10 Films and cheap :)
I should probably start off by mentioning this is the 3rd time I've had this DVD. The other 2 I've had people borrowing them and not giving them back which I suppose is a... Read more
Published 10 months ago by JuggernaughtH
Unrealistic but ...
Enjoyable, if unrealistic terrorist romp. Edge of the seat towards the end. OK so could they really have driven into the centre of a dangerous district and survived, and just how... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Writer
Postman pat
Out of thousands of films i watched this has to have the best starting ever! plenty of action and didn't fail to get my adrenalin running, then after the first 15 minutes the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Andy
Kingdom Come!
A well crafted movie that I enjoyed but that still somehow left me feeling a little cheated and empty. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Thriller lover
action, reality
Very good action movie. The camera is always on the move, giving you the sensation of being there. Also, it shows us on the West that even between allies there are big cultural... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mario Jose R. Assuncao
Seller highly recommended
Fully recommend this seller. I ordered the DVD on a tight deadline & anticipated it may not arrive in time, however it was received within less than 48 hours of ordering: for... Read more
Published on 19 April 2010 by ALM
Two Great Setpieces At Either End Of A Not So Great Movie...
I thought this started literally with a bang but I lost interest until the last half hour or so. Yeah, it's got a great shoot out at the end but it's nothing like Heat. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2010 by Adam Jackson
All you want and more
This movie was just exceptional. Drama and action, mixed with a look at "the other side of the coin," and blasts of humour and strong, real-life referenceing. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2009 by Wally Lewis
Fantastic action flick
I don't normally write reviews but I felt I had to based on the other ones I have read here especially someone only giving it one star.
This is a great action MOVIE! Read more
This is a great action MOVIE! Read more
Published on 1 July 2009 by A. Lemke
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