The Kingdom
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Cast: Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jeremy Piven, Danny Huston, Ashraf Barhom.
Directed by Peter Berg.
Story: The FBI investigates a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia.
Running Time: 1hr 50 minutes.
UK Certificate 15. |
The Kingdom doesn't exactly reign supreme, but it will collect its fair share of loyal subjects. Now go and
buy me another island.
Do you remember Team America? I don't think the makers of The Kingdom do, or they'd have
toned down the intensely pro-American message. You could graft whole scenes directly into a satirical comedy and it would
work, so brazen is the "hell yeah!" gung-ho-ness. Jamie Foxx can, it seems, do no wrong (if we conveniently forget
Stealth), and he's typically watchable here as the lead of an American FBI team sent to
investigate a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia. I'm not entirely sure why they needed to get involved. I expect they told
us while I was dozing. All the Saudis are bastards and all the yanks are heroes - oh - except for one Saudi who turns out
to be a good egg after enough of the home team's apple-piety rubs off on him. What a load of crap.
Peter Berg takes the director's chair - you may remember him as the star of the best movie never to get a cinema release:
The Last Seduction - and he takes a cameo here just so we don't forget what he looks like. He does a pretty good job on
the whole, but the hand-held wobbling of the camera is way overdone. A little jiggle is fine and adds atmosphere - but we
sway around as if we're watching through the eyes of Pete Doherty on a waltzer. As soon as you notice it, it stays with
you for the whole movie and proves a major distraction. Mind you, that's probably a good thing, as you don't want to be
thinking too much - you're better off having a quick kip until the next action scene turns up. If you start paying
attention you'll be very confused (as I was) about the mysterious bad guy they keep talking about called Abu Hamza ... who
may or may not be the real-life UK Muslim cleric with the arm-hook who pops up on the news every now and then. I still
don't know if they were talking about that guy - there seem to be a few people with that name so I guess it's a confusing
coincidence. It doesn't help.
I'm being rather negative about The Kingdom, and with good reason, but it does have something huge in its favour. It's
not the support of eternal war-man Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, or Arrested Development's Jason Bateman, good though
they all are. It's not the action, though the ending is suitably compelling. It's the music. Throughout the movie
at virtually every point there's some sort of background music going on, and it's this audio that makes the movie. If you
ask the average person leaving the cinema to describe the music, they'll say, "what music?" and that's what makes it great.
It creates suspense, it builds tension, and it IS the entire atmosphere of the movie. It came as no surprise to check
the credits and find Danny Elfman's name there - along with John Williams he has to be one of the greatest movie musicians
of all time, credited with most of Tim Burton's back catalogue and countless other movies - he even wrote The Simpsons
theme tune.
So the music saves it then. Well, not really. Brilliant though the soundtrack is, it can't make a good movie on its own.
However fabulous your shoes are, you're still going to look a dick if you're wearing a bullet-proof vest in Sainsbury's.
The movie seems to be nothing more than an attempt to raise national pride in the US, and it doesn't even try to hide it.
It seems to think it's Syriana with balls, when in reality it's more like The A Team with budget.
I pity the fool who comes off looking like that.
With all this criticism slowly crystallising in my head, I was all ready to give it a faintly damning 2/5, but then the
very final scene wandered onstage and turned the whole message on its head - rather heavy-handedly, but nonetheless very
effectively. Without giving it away, it's as if they're saying, "yeah, we know it's bordering on propaganda.
Don't blame us, we didn't write it." This scene - in fact the very last line - added more to the movie than any amount of
exploding trucks could've done.
The Kingdom isn't all it could have been. There's enough action and bravado to satisfy the jocks and squaddies, but
its blatant flag-waving precludes it from any kind of serious-movie credibility. It's a very big gun, but it's firing
blanks.
I enjoyed this film: 3/5
I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 4/5 - yes, I know this seems to
contradict what I've said, nevertheless I think most viewers won't mind the flaws.
Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 4/5 - bang, crash, shooty, kablooie.
To enjoy this film you should be: tolerant of the clumsy politics.
The Kingdom was released in the UK on 5th October 2007.
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