08-12-2018, 03:26 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-12-2018, 03:28 AM by Gaith. Edited 1 time in total.)
The Kingdom (2007) (US Netflix streaming)
![[Image: 0_Gk_Lp_FOz_VR_600x315.jpg]](https://s22.postimg.cc/gokhu5es1/0_Gk_Lp_FOz_VR_600x315.jpg)
Quick, what's the best Middle Eastern terrorism movie featuring Kyle Chandler? Well, besides Argo. No, it's not Zero Dark Thirty. It's this one.
... Hey, remember when Collateral hit, and Jamie Foxx suddenly seemed like the next major action star? Aside from Django Unchained, his filmography since has been underwhelming relative to said promise. Anyhow, I'm just now catching up with Peter Berg's The Kingdom, a 2007 action thriller that imagines what the so-called War on Terror might have been like had smart people been calling the shots for a changet. In '07, that was a fantasy; in '18, it's a nostalgic memory. The movie itself is a lean, effective actioner that showcases Foxx at his best, and does an admirable job portraying the nuances of US-Saudi Arabian relations, which, eleven years on, are as relevant as ever. The Kingdom may be fiction, but, unlike Zero Dark Thirty, it tells a coherent story. Nor does it transcend the action genre as Sicario does, but it gets the job done, and deserves at least one watch.
B+
![[Image: 0_Gk_Lp_FOz_VR_600x315.jpg]](https://s22.postimg.cc/gokhu5es1/0_Gk_Lp_FOz_VR_600x315.jpg)
Quick, what's the best Middle Eastern terrorism movie featuring Kyle Chandler? Well, besides Argo. No, it's not Zero Dark Thirty. It's this one.
... Hey, remember when Collateral hit, and Jamie Foxx suddenly seemed like the next major action star? Aside from Django Unchained, his filmography since has been underwhelming relative to said promise. Anyhow, I'm just now catching up with Peter Berg's The Kingdom, a 2007 action thriller that imagines what the so-called War on Terror might have been like had smart people been calling the shots for a changet. In '07, that was a fantasy; in '18, it's a nostalgic memory. The movie itself is a lean, effective actioner that showcases Foxx at his best, and does an admirable job portraying the nuances of US-Saudi Arabian relations, which, eleven years on, are as relevant as ever. The Kingdom may be fiction, but, unlike Zero Dark Thirty, it tells a coherent story. Nor does it transcend the action genre as Sicario does, but it gets the job done, and deserves at least one watch.
B+