The Kingdom Release Date: September 28, 2007 Studio: Universal Pictures Director: Peter Berg Screenwriter: Matthew Michael Carnahan Starring: Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman,
Jeremy Piven, Danny Huston, Richard Jenkins Genre: Thriller MPAA Rating: R (for intense sequences of graphic brutal violence, and
language) Official Website: TheKingdommovie.com
Plot Summary: Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx leads an all-star ensemble
in a timely thriller that tracks a powder-keg criminal investigation shared by
two cultures chasing a deadly enemy ready to strike again in "The Kingdom."
When a terrorist bomb detonates inside a Western housing compound in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, an international incident is ignited. While diplomats slowly
debate equations of territorialism, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Foxx)
quickly assembles an elite team (Oscar® winner Chris Cooper and Golden Globe
winners Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) and negotiates a secret five-day trip
into Saudi Arabia to locate the madman behind the bombing.
Upon landing in the desert kingdom, however, Fleury and his team discover Saudi
authorities suspicious and unwelcoming of American interlopers into what they
consider a local matter. Hamstrung by protocol—and with the clock ticking on
their five days—the FBI agents find their expertise worthless without the trust
of their Saudi counterparts, who want to locate the terrorist in their homeland
on their own terms.
Fleury’s crew finds a like-minded partner in Saudi Colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf
Barhoum), who helps them navigate royal politics and unlock the secrets of the
crime scene and the workings of an extremist cell bent on further destruction.
With these unlikely allies sharing a propulsive commitment to crack the case,
the team is led to the killer's front door in a blistering do-or-die
confrontation. Now in a fight for their own lives, strangers united by one
mission won't stop until justice is found in "The Kingdom."
EN 5 Second Review:
Jamie Foxx is turning into one of our favorite actors as
he hits another home run with this one. Whoever is picking his scripts
should get a raise. Jennifer Garner isn't bad either.
It
makes Miami Vice look sophisticated.
Peter Veugelaers
: EntertainmentNutz Terrorism thriller has all the
hallmarks of those Hollywood production numbers with their slick
technical quality but oh so smooth and cool that it makes Miami Vice
look sophisticated. It has the same brisk pace in its overly contrived
conversational scenes as the much better Black Hawk Down had in
its much more effective and long action sequences. An explosion in Saudi
Arabia sparks American agents to the rescue in an investigation into
what happened. You don’t act in these movies. You just go through
one-dimensional and superficial expression, meaning that when their
emotional it’s fake, with a hint of depth thrown in. And oh so boring
from stylistic director Peter Berg (The Rundown) and writer
Matthew Michael Carnahan who wrote the infinitely more interesting
Lions for Lambs.
The
film is smart and engaging, and if it plays a little on our fears of the
next big terrorist attack, it does so without feeling exploitative James Berardinelli
: ReelViews The Kingdom is a police procedural with a unique -
and interesting - twist. While the movie employs all of the
investigative techniques we have become familiar with as a result of
countless TV shows, there's a little more to this movie than CSI:
Saudi Arabia. Politics of many different sorts play a role here,
from the international need to keep relations between the United States
and Saudi Arabia cordial to the difficulties faced by a female
investigator working in a country where women do not hold equal
positions to men...more
I
left the theater completely uncertain about what the
filmmakers intended to say about the orgiastic bloodshed
they showed me. The Kingdom is an explosion of rage
in search of a rationale Colin Covert: Minneapolis
Star-Tribune
If a film could be medicated for schizophrenia, "The
Kingdom" would be a suitable candidate for treatment. Almost
every scene looks like it's having a nervous breakdown, and
the story plays out like a Rambo movie made by bipolar
pacifists...more
Release Date: September 28, 2007
EN 5 Second Review:
Jamie Foxx is turning into one of our favorite actors as
he hits another home run with this one. Whoever is picking his scripts
should get a raise. Jennifer Garner isn't bad either.
