Edinburgh Film Festival Gets a Surprise Trip to 'The Kingdom'
Filed under: Action, Drama, Thrillers, Universal, War
Just last night I was enjoying an IM conversation with Patricia from Moviefone and she asked me what movie I'd seen earlier in the night. When I said "The Kingdom," I was told that the film had already received a seal of approval from some of the MF staff. And I definitely concur. I offered that opinion that "It's pretty damn good. Peter Berg has become like a less pretentious Michael Mann." And then for the rest of the evening, the movie really stuck with me. It's a smart, slick and very topical action thriller about a team of FBI agents who travel to Saudi Arabia (hence "The Kingdom") to investigate a horrific explosion that left over 100 people dead.And although I didn't know it at the time, while I was enjoying my screening of the movie in Philadelphia ... hundreds of attendees at the Edinburgh Film Festival were enjoying their own "surprise" screening of The Kingdom. Empire's Alan Morrison and I share several opinions on the film: "The film is anti-fundamentalist, but in no way anti-Muslim. The two bravest characters in the film are Saudi police officers. In fact, let's start a campaign now to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Ashraf Barhoum, who plays the dedicated Colonel Al-Ghazi." And this part made me chuckle: "The Kingdom looks, sounds and feels like a Michael Mann movie."
Then again, Mr. Mann is listed as a producer on The Kingdom, so maybe he stopped by to share a few pointers with director Peter Berg. And speaking of actor-turned-director, The Kingdom counts as his fourth feature film -- and he has yet to make one I dislike. (For the record: Very Bad Things, The Rundown and Friday Night Lights.) Anyway, the film's subject matter is sure to inspire a few newspaper editorials across the country, and I'm very curious to see how critics and moviegoers react to The Kingdom. The film, which stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman, opens on September 28.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-27-2007 @ 10:56AM
colby said...
Saw the film a couple weeks ago. I won’t go into the details. But I will offer some insight to some aspects of the film.
First, it’s definitely a Peter Berg film ... By that I mean if you’re familiar at all with Friday Night Lights, you’ll see a lot of similarities in the color palette, shot coverage, even some score from Explosions in the Sky (which I absolutely LOVED). Get this, Kyle Chandler even shows up for a bit (I remember his name being associated with this movie but forgot that until he appeared on screen). Minka “Lyla Garrity” Kelly has a cameo as well. Heck, by then I was wondering if Landry was going to show up in a Crucifictorious shirt.
Second, the movie basically plays the like The Siege/CSI: Kabul ... Then it goes all Clear and Present Danger/Black Hawk Down in the third act. This really worked for me, though. The action surely cranked up the tension. It kinda got my heart racing in the same way Bourne did last week. Speaking of which ... Ultimatum was easily the best movie I’ve seen all year. This flick finishes a close second.
Third, the casting was top-notch. Nobody really tried to reach for a character they haven’t played before ... and that’s a good thing.
- I haven’t been a fan of Jamie Foxx as of late. That aside, he played the role as team-lead and hero as well as anyone.
- Jen Garner was great. I never really watched Alias, but you could see some Sydney Bristow in her character. Third-act actions scenes featuring her turning the table on the bad guys had the audience cheering.
- Chris Cooper was fantastic ... nice to see him play a good guy after I’ve been seeing him in so many villain roles lately.
- Bateman played his part to perfection ... often the source of the funnier moments of the movie, which (strangely) there were many — more than I was expecting.
- Piven (not mentioned in previous review) channeled some Ari as a smarmy U.S./Saudi liaison of sorts. Glad Berg could cast him ... probably easy to do given their history (Very Bad Things).
- Berg had a cameo as well, which was nice.
Fourth, I didn’t find the movie necessarily as “preachy”. Though, it does kinda go all Munich on you in the last 5 minutes ... alliterating to the fact that the war on terror won’t be over any time soon (i.e. never). I didn’t see it as “rah-rah” U.S. rules ... I saw it more as strangers in a strange land, having to overcome the culture with which they are put in.
Lastly, the only thing I found to be even slightly negative is the believe-ability in the characters’ skill set ... i.e. their proficiency with a fire-arm. I realize their all FBI agents, and that requires training, but they were bordering on Jack Bauer’s skill level in terrorist elimination. Needless to say, I was willing to let that slide given that I was so engrossed up to that point anyway. I understand it’s a movie and that’s normal.
I’ll end with this ... If you’re looking for a polished action flick that amps you up, keeps you on your toes, has you laughing, all while tugging at your heart strings — look no further.
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