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Three Kings

Three Kings (1999)

tomatometer

94

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 129
Fresh: 121 | Rotten: 8

Three Kings successfully blends elements of action, drama, and comedy into a thoughtful, exciting movie on the Gulf War.

89

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 3

Three Kings successfully blends elements of action, drama, and comedy into a thoughtful, exciting movie on the Gulf War.

audience

70

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 161,410

My Rating

Movie Info

Three stars team up for this unusual look at America's role in the war against Iraq. In 1991, as the Gulf War winds to a close, three American servicemen find themselves happy to have achieved victory but wondering about the ultimate importance of what they've done (especially since Saddam Hussein is still in power). Major Archie Gates (George Clooney) is a decorated Vietnam veteran and special forces officer with two weeks to go before he retires; Sgt. Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) has a new baby

R, 1 hr. 55 min.

Action & Adventure, Comedy

,

David O. Russell

Sep 4, 2001

Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast

All Critics (132) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (127) | Rotten (8) | DVD (26)

A damning yet idealistic satire about the motives behind U.S. foreign policy.

August 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

No, Three Kings is not a great picture, but it is a very good one, perhaps the first feature of merit to come out of the Gulf War.

April 25, 2003 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Three Kings takes a comfortable proletarian view of Desert Storm.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Russell's edgy pacing here and the assorted styles he's adopted create an exciting, restless immediacy.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment
Sacramento Bee
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Ultimately, instead of drawing us in, his swagger and the dazzle of his pyrotechnics keep us at a remove from the savagery. They become abstractions, too.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The first Hollywood feature to take on the 1991 Gulf War, Three Kings does so in an impudently comic, stylistically aggressive and, finally, very thoughtful manner.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

One of Hollywood's few films about the Gulf War, David O. Russell's Three Kings is an original war feature that's effective as a social satire as well as political critique.

February 4, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Violent, liberal George Clooney Gulf War caper.

December 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

A hallucinatory near-masterpiece and one of the best American war films produced in the 1990s.

October 20, 2010 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Ithis is a career making movie, then its writer/director David O. Russell who deserves the credit with this very creative effort from the debut filmmaker.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | Comment
Dark Horizons

Three Kings mightn't be the best thought-out or most reassuring movie of the year, but the more I think about it, the more I'm sure that it is one of the best.

June 28, 2009 Full Review | Comment
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

It's amazing how much action can be crammed into a movie about a war where most soldiers didn't actually see any action. Three Kings has its fair share of shootouts, none that are merely squeezed in for guilty pleasures. Every shot fired is motivated by c

April 9, 2009 Full Review Source: AskMen.com | Comment

Far more intelligent and perceptive than most actioners, yet with enough thrills and spills to satisfy adrenaline junkies.

August 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

(The) screenplay abruptly changes tone after the first half-hour, eventually incorporating some genuinely harrowing sequences... The final picture becomes something noticeably deeper and smarter than its first reels suggest.

August 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Kalamazoo Gazette | Comment
Kalamazoo Gazette

Worth watching.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comment
Big Picture Big Sound

With characters you can root for and a story that is both engaging and honest, Three Kings goes for the gold and comes out a winner.

May 11, 2007 Full Review Source: Mixed Reviews | Comment

Keilich strikes a sweetly engaging balance between humor and pathos.

March 12, 2007 Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | Comment
culturevulture.net

The last reel descends into a muddle of trade-offs, heroic about-turns and romanticised rebels, but this is defiant, provocative cinema; Russell may yet prove a film-maker to treasure.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

An action movie with a conscience.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

Go see it for the effects, action and treasure hunt story, but enjoy the intelligence, too.

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | Comment
Reeling Reviews

It's an outrageous comedy and a challenging morality play, while at heart its a classic Western (set in an unlikely context).

January 15, 2005 Full Review Source: Looking Closer | Comment
Looking Closer

Combinando humor e drama com talento, funciona como uma dura crítica à política belicista dos EUA - sendo tão (ou mais) relevante hoje em dia do que quando foi lançado.

September 13, 2004 Comment
Cinema em Cena

The violence and profanity are there, but so is a sharp-edged political point of view, interesting characters and a plot enhanced with dark humor.

June 25, 2004 Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Three Kings

I wasnt overly fond of this movie, although critically acclaimed it failed to impress me.Maybe because ive seen so many war movies that they arent as interesting as they first were and now im bored of watching the same recycled storyline!

November 5, 2007
FiLmCrAzY
Film Crazy

Super Reviewer

Ehhhh, its alright. The acting isn't amazing and the story has no real depth but still, its entertaining.

February 4, 2012
paul o.
paul oh

Super Reviewer

    1. Major Archie Gates: Though's don't work in the day time.
    2. Walter Wogaman: They kinda do.
    – Submitted by macky s (2 months ago)
    1. Major Archie Gates: The way it works is, you do the thing you're scared shitless of, and you get the courage AFTER you do it, not before you do it.
    – Submitted by Nusfish K (3 months ago)
    1. Conrad Vig: Man... I didn't join the army to pull paper our of people's asses.
    – Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)
    1. Cathy Daitch: Oh look at you Adriana, look at what's become of you.
    2. Adriana Cruz: Yeah look at me, I've got my clothes on - I'm dressed!
    – Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)

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