The Kingdom

[Brandon Rice]

I didn't see a thread about this film (which surprised me) anyway... great flick! Caught it this afternoon. Really got me invested in the characters, and the last half hour is super intense! I really liked the film... one of the best, if not the best I've seen all summer! Go check it out.

[MotionFx]

Yeah, it was great! I also like Yuma and eastern promises this fall. I really want to see "In the Valley of Elah"


My next film, Stephen King's, "The Mist" Dir by Frank Darabont, comes out Nov 21st!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884328/

not you typical horror film......

Brian
VFX compositor

[dvpixl]

was a great introduction sequence.

[William_Robinette]

If Bourne Supremacy counts as a summer flick that's the best I have seen this summer. The Kingdom was OK.

[AloysiusK]

The Kingdom is like Syriana minus intelligence. A hypocritical action movie that condemns violence while getting the audience to cheer on killing. Big studio bore.

[Batutta]

The Kingdom is like Syriana minus intelligence. A hypocritical action movie that condemns violence while getting the audience to cheer on killing. Big studio bore.

I felt the same way about Blood Diamond, a movie that supposedly condemns genocide, while also providing hundreds of faceless black Africans for Leonardo to mow down with little remorse.

[J.R. Hudson]

Are you referring to the RUF rebels ? (You know, the bad guys?)

[Batutta]

Are you referring to the RUF rebels ? (You know, the bad guys?)

I don't care who they were. It was just tonally wrong. You can't condemn mass killing and the have the "hero" killing masses of people in the same movie. That would be like Liam Neeson taking a machine gun and mowing down a squadron of Nazis in Schindler's List. You put that kind of thing in an Indiana Jones movie, not a sober social issues movie.

[Sad Max]

Yeah, since the moral implications in killing a number of Nazis, are identical and indistinguishable, from the Nazis killing their victims...

Crypto-Pacifist nonsense.

[Batutta]

For me, this is an aesthetic issue of tone. Whether or not I believe Nazis should have been killed (which I do of course), I don't think it would fit the tone of Schindler's List to see Oskar Schindler becoming an action hero. That's why I objected to Leo killing squadrons of faceless African rebels, especially since it wasn't to avenge an injustice. He simply killed them because they were in his way.

[Brandon Rice]

You put that kind of thing in an Indiana Jones movie, not a sober social issues movie.

To be honest, I never watched The Kingdom thinking it was a "sober social issues movie" though I did think the line at the end spoke volumes... and sent a chill down my spine.

[Batutta]

I haven't seen the Kingdom. I was just saying I had a similar reaction to Blood Diamond that one of the above posters had to this, and apologize for hijacking the thread.

[mcgeedigital]

To be honest, I never watched The Kingdom thinking it was a "sober social issues movie" though I did think the line at the end spoke volumes... and sent a chill down my spine.

The Kingdom was never meant to be a ""sober social issues" movie, and IMO, the line at the end actually smacked of bad moral equivalence. Other than that I really enjoyed it.

[AloysiusK]

It's one thing to be a popcorn action movie, it's another to be exploitive.

I am perplexed how people are finding escapist entertainment or enjoyment in a film that is not a sober social-issues movie, yet wraps its popcorn action movie in all of the subtext of the depressing and disturbing geopolitical situation.

It would be one thing if it provided a little nuance and provocation like Three Kings did with a messy, bloody major current events topic.

I think this is an apt approximation by entertainment weekly:

"So shameless is The Kingdom, ignoring consequence and treating its audience like cash-dispensing machines with buttons to be pushed rather than thinking individuals willing to consider the reality of America's entanglement with the Middle East."

[mcgeedigital]

I think this is an apt approximation by entertainment weekly:

"So shameless is The Kingdom, ignoring consequence and treating its audience like cash-dispensing machines with buttons to be pushed rather than thinking individuals willing to consider the reality of America's entanglement with the Middle East."

Thats ridiculous. The whole movie's PREMISE was based on Americas relationship with the house of Saud.

[AloysiusK]

She is arguing that using that as the premise is the reason that it is shameless. Here is a link to the whole article, where she introduces exactly what you are saying:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20058666,00.html

[Sad Max]

So shameless is The Kingdom, ignoring consequence and treating its audience like cash-dispensing machines with buttons to be pushed rather than thinking individuals willing to consider the reality of America's entanglement with the Middle East.

Substitute American Leadership for The Kingdom and you end up with an equally valid statement.

Really, why should movie makers treat their audience with higher esteem, than do the politicians who expect the members of that audience to turn up on election day?

If the audience wants to be treated like they're smarter, they need to start acting like they are.

[Joops]

I thought the film had its moments but it boiled down to a pretentious over the top Go-USA action flick. Seemed like the old 1940s army films.

[DeSica]

It's Peter Berg...how good a film could one expect?

[Batutta]

"My money in 24 hours, or you will wear your ass for a hat."

How exactly does one wear an ass for a hat?

[AloysiusK]

I don't know, but I bet it involves tea-bagging.

[chris f]

i liked it. it did have parts where it felt like it had a summer blockbuster feel to it instead of digging deeper like a syriana. so far i think it was probably the best/most entertaining film i've seen in theaters this year (transformers, chuck and larry, into the wild, 2 days in paris, in the valley of elah, bourne ultimatum)