The Kingdom

What do you get when you combine, Jaime Foxx, Jason Bateman, Jen Garner, Chris Cooper, Peter Berg, the middle east, terrorism and the most intense 3o minutes of climatic action you will ever see, give up The Kingdom. This movie is about what goes on in Saudi Arabia that most Americans have no clue about. I cannot vouch for how accurate the film is, I studied Latin America college not the Middle East, but I can tell you that felt like it was accurate.

Peter Berg is like my favoritest director that I never think about. This dude just makes solid, fun to watch movies that are never boring. Now the marketing of this movie would lead you to believe it was going to be more than a simply action movie, so don't believe the hype, but than again what is wrong with being a simple action movie. For an action movie this one was a little slow, the begining was good, the middle dragged in parts, but the ending more than made up for it. In fact I am comfortable saying the movie was built around the last 3o minutes and in that regard it did not fail. It delivered several times over.

The story was believable in the sense that stuff goes down in Saudi Arabia, Americans get killed and the last thing the Saudi government wants is American involvment so everything it took to get the FBI over there is believable. It is also not difficult to imagine that once over there they would not be welcomed with open arms. So the initial investigation was slow going, but stuff happens a common ground is found and the investigation is off and runing.

I should say a word about the acting, GREAT. I don't need to say much about the aforementioned cast, however I want to spend a special shout out to Ashraf Barhom, who played the Saudi Colonel that aided the FBI's investigation. This guys was awesome, I mean really really good he along with Ali Suliman money all the way. It is nice that western film has gotten to the place where we put in the effort to cast people from the region to play these roles as opposed to casting a westerner with a tan and learning an accent. This way the acting is much more authentic and pays huge dividens on screen.

Whats not to like about this movie, it was not perfect, but most movies aren't. The Kingdom is a good time at the flix, definately a must see.

GRADE - A-