The Kingdom

There is a category of beautifully trashy movies where the American president takes down ten terrorists in a man-to-man battle, then sits in the cockpit of a military plane and eliminates a missile base threatening the whole world with a precise hit. Similar movies are transparent, they don't pretend to be anything else, and in their stupidity, they are often surprisingly entertaining. Unfortunately, The Kingdom does not belong to this category. It is obviously a low-quality production, and the opening montage and the scene of the attack on the American employees' camp set the bar quite high. One then looks forward to a clever crime thriller, only to find out that the good part is already over, and with every subsequent shot, the film delves into all the imaginable clichés of action movies. In the case of The Kingdom, the core of success for film fans is represented by well-shot action scenes and the reliable acting of the participants, although routine. However, the film script exudes such indifference toward Saudi Arabian realities and such contempt for the local culture that it hurts; the American civilization's superiority is simply evident when American professionals have to teach their colleagues the basics of criminal investigation, including fingerprinting... I don't even feel right giving it 2 stars in the end. Overall impression: 25%. (05/12/2013)

The craft is excellent, Berg does a good job with the action, although it all seems so polished that it is impersonal. The schematism in the world vision can be carried away, you can feel how much the screenwriter tried to plastically see the problem. Not that it is completely successful - the overall message in the style of "we all have families and we love them, so we are just people" is pleasantly dulled by the final point. I don't know if the creators wanted to suppress that cleverly cynical message at the last minute, and I really didn't understand the choice of music. Given the acting and the really frenetic and swollen last twenty minutes, The Kingdom will definitely pay off... A mastered genre film, but Peter Berg still lacks considerable dose of individuality to achieve the brilliance of Mann or Scott. (01/18/2009)

Michael Mann has laid his guardian hands on Peter Berg and the result is a quite provocative contribution to the problem of the current sores of the Western world, i.e., terrorism emanating from Muslim countries. Yes, it's all driven by the mainstream, which doesn't allow it to be as biting in some ways as it might like, but the filmmakers still managed to go further than, for example, their colleagues with Blood Diamond. The film's train of thought is mainly that even an ordinary Muslim wants to be a peaceful person whose concerns are his faith and his own family, and that fanaticism is the work of others. Berg manages to imbue these interviews with a fair amount of authorial sensitivity, drawing decent truths about both worlds from the many words spoken. However, in order to avoid falling into boredom, he lets the actors deliver hard-hitting catchphrases and at the end, he serves up some major action that sits the viewer in their armchair in such a way that nothing that could match it this season will stick in the memory. The scene with the car-jacking and subsequent kidnapping is, in my opinion, the most effectively escalating scene of the year, which also ties in with the London station stakeout in The Bourne Ultimatum. As a person who studies the issues in the Middle East and terrorism, I was quite pleased with The Kingdom, but as a casual viewer, I was perfectly settled and entertained. PS: To say that it is mainly the work of Michael Mann is nonsense, if only for the different functionality and emotional impact of some scenes. It's like saying that Spielberg actually made Transformers and not Bay. (10/16/2007)

I don’t share the artificially formed cult around Peter Berg in this part of the world (Czech Republic). I consider him to be a reliable routineer who understands technical aspects and is good at pumping a movie full of pace, but he isn’t so good at drawing you into the story. Although the producer’s name draws the attention. Judge for yourself - Michael Mann. Sounds promising, huh? The Kingdom isn’t an action movie and isn’t at all a “hamburger movie", or at least as little as a potential blockbuster can be. It says neither one thing or the other. You find yourself believing that this is more or less what things would turn out in reality if an FBI team were really to assist in investigations in an Arabian country. Luckily it didn’t descend into a big-budget episode of CSI with naive natives and unerring, great Americans. Everything from political tricks through division of power to differences in cultures is addressed pretty realistically here. Even so, The Kingdom has one fundamental problem. But it isn’t the actors, who are outstanding and especially the Arabs headed by Ashraf Barhom in the role of Col. Faris Al Ghazi. The problem is the forcibly and completely unnecessarily grafted-on closing action sequence. Don’t get me wrong, it was excellent, raw and gripping... But only on its own. It seems like fifteen minutes of the highlights of Black Hawk Down, but it absolutely destroys the message of the entire movie and fits in like... Like nothing on earth. Which is a shame, because it’s good, it just should have appeared in a movie of a totally different kind. At least the last two sentences of The Kingdom saves the originally intended impression and pleasantly aptly remark upon the preceding events. (10/12/2007)

A very strong four stars. Berg really knows his stuff. It begins with an ingenious collage of archive images of U.S - Arab relations combined with computer graphics. I'd even venture to guess that these are this year's most impressive opening titles. The approach to the subject is matter-of-fact, with no embellishments and unnecessary frills. The acting performances are all high caliber. I was very surprised by Jennifer Garner, the surprisingly "ordinary" Jason Bateman, and I have to take my hat off to the performance of the almost unknown Ashraf Barhom. The final action inferno ranks among this year's best, and I will stress once again that I don't mind shaky camera. So, my last words about the Kingdom? I'll just say this: In the end, we're all the same. (12/14/2007)