The Kingdom |
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| Kashif Ahmed, 29 Feb 2008 |
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| 'The N.Y. Times' called Peter Berg's 'The Kingdom' "'Syrianna' for dummies", but quite frankly, that's an insult to 'Syrianna', not to mention dummies. 'The Kingdom', though tacked with a poignant, albeit mealy mouthed, dénouement that equates the American M.O. to that of the terrorists; plays like an anachronistic, anti-Arab shoot em' up that teaches us all Arabs (hence Muslims) are bad, besides the ones who serve U.S. interests at the expense of their own country. When a devastating suicide bomb blast levels an American owned oil worker's compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; a po-faced crack team of maverick 'FBI' agents are dispatched to do a routine meet n' greet, but unsmiling hard man Ronald Flurry (the excellent Jamie Foxx cast as yet another authority figure; what is it with this guy? his last four characters have either been cops, agents or soldiers), Chris 'whatamidoinginthis?' Cooper, Justin 'here-because-the-screenwriter's-brother-likes-me' Bateman and Jennifer 'miracle-I'm-still-working' Garner don't do meet n' f***in' greet: Hoo-Rah! 'The Kingdom' is produced by one of my favourite directors; Michael Mann, though after the opening 'U.S.-Arab History Timeline' (obviously compiled by someone suffering from selective amnesia) you can tell why he passed the buck to actor/director Peter Berg. Now Berg had a small role in Mann's superlative neo-noir 'Collateral' (2004) followed by a brief appearance in Joe Carnahan's (whose brother's on script duty for this one) 'Smokin’ Aces' (2007), and is actually quite a good director with entertaining, if lightweight, movies like 'The Rundown' (2003) and 'Very Bad Things' (2000) to his name. Yet here, Berg seems to have abandoned any & all sense of individualism or creativity, to give us his best impression of a Michael Mann film; aping everything from hard, HD-DV camera moves to procedural terminology and stylish shootouts complete with authentic cartridge Foley. A lot of time is spent in uncovering clues or checking shady alleyways for Arabist evildoers who, it seems, are in league with enemy clichés escaped from 1920s propganda films. There's a bizarre scene in which an investigating Arab officer gives Jennifer Garner some pink pyjamas because she's a girl, funny, but not quite in the way the maker's had intended whilst the penultimate scene; in which the same Saudi officer shakes her hand as a teary eyed sign of cultural progress is as laughable as it is absurd, coming in as it does, after a ridiculous, 'G.I. Jane'-esque fire fight. Two good action sequences and shots of Jennifer Garner running, can't compensate for a lacklustre storyline that attempts to build bridges by trying as hard as it possibly can to ignore the elephant (or should that be herd?) in the room (i.e. U.S. terrorism in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and the 130 countries in which they've built permanent bases). For its a real stretch for us to accept a premise that claims to be rooted in some kind of reality, yet at the same time, avoids the real issue with every passing frame. At best; it's a bad Michael Mann movie, at worst; it's a bad Michael Bay movie, though for trivia purposes, you might like to know 'The Kingdom' is the first production that Saudi royals allowed to be filmed in the UAE...great, for as Matt Damon's exasperated advisor said to an Arab Emir in 'Syriana': "...that's probably not the dumbest decision you've ever made, just the dumbest one you'll make today". Cool poster, shame about the movie. |
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