A barely coherent compendium of Middle East fantasies, fears and doubts.
Comment
09/28/07
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The Kingdom (2007)
51
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:181
Fresh:92
Rotten:89
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: While providing several top-notch action scenes, The Kingdom ultimately collapses under the weight of formula and muddled politics.
Theatrical Release:Sep 28, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $47,456,450
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... [More]
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman
Director: Peter Berg
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Reviews for The Kingdom
Top CriticBottom-feeding action nonsense...Truthfully, I'm not sure what's more offensive, exploiting real-world violence or treating the audience like they're 12 years-old.
09/27/07
A riveting ticking time-bomb of a movie that really works. The last 30 minutes are so intense you won't be able to move.
09/27/07
It's all very wish-fulfillment stuff, but the gratification doesn't end up feeling deep.
09/27/07
The climactic showdown between the baddies who just can't let our heroes go without incident is a non-stop guns-a-blazing assault that Berg delivers with the panache of the great action directors
09/27/07
Convincing technical details gathered for the purpose of a good yarn with only the vaguest connection to the grown-up world.
09/27/07
A surprisingly nuanced exploration of the sincere desire held by many in this country to make the US the good guy around the globe -- the white knight superpower.
09/27/07
none of the three parts of this movie get a sufficient chance to breathe, grow, add some depth and complexity or grab our attention for more than a few minutes at a time.
09/27/07
stinks of pandering
09/27/07
A high-budget episode of "The A Team" crossed with "24" and a sort of "CSI: Riyadh" until a few minutes at the end try to tack on some larger meaning. It just shows how thin the material in the rest of the film is by contrast.
09/27/07
Although the actors are good, this is a director's movie. Berg keeps the interest and tension at a high level throughout.
09/27/07
The Kingdom serves its purpose as a Hollywood action film, but there are numerous missed opportunities and faults that prevent it from reaching the upper echelon of war films.
09/27/07
The picture is made with a degree of care, and what's surprising about it is the way [director] Berg actually resists making rah-rah jingoistic proclamations instead of relying on them.
09/27/07
Top CriticFrom bloody opening to bleak coda, The Kingdom pulls off something unexpected and unsettling: It's a popcorn movie that leaves the taste of ashes in your mouth.
09/27/07
The pacing is just right, shifting deftly between procedural road blocks and high-energy action sequences that wouldn't be out of place in The Bourne Ultimatum.
09/27/07
While it stays well short of a daring political statement, it effectively hints in just about every frame that the U.S. partnership with this greedy, family-run nation of fundamentalist Muslims is a powder keg just waiting to explode.
09/27/07
As an exercise in eye-for-an-eye wish fulfillment, this laser-like focus on the bad guys is something of a relief, although, inevitably, a fiasco in a best-laid-plans sort of way.
09/27/07
The whole movie [feels] like it was designed to be a nearly two-hour counterpoint to the nightly news.
09/27/07
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.
09/27/07
The blam-blam histrionics devalue the verity.
09/27/07
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