1.
reviews
JAYPLAY = 10.04.2007
THE KINGDOM
From the opening graphics of Peter Berg's The Kingdom you suspect the film is going to be a big-budget version of Loose Change. The opening logos are a timeline of U.S.-Saudi relations up to 9/11, where the Twin Towers sprout from a different graphic. You get the sense that political muckraking is going to follow; however this is not the case.
Like 2005's Syrianna, it's about oil. Yet where
oil was at the center of Syrianna, in The Kingdom oil commodity is presented implicitly, only as background, something to keep in mind while you watch the film.
A compound in Saudi Arabia has been attacked, killing more than 100 Americans including special agent Francis Manner (Kyle Chandler). A team, led by special agent Ronald Fury (Jamie Foxx), wants to investigate the scene, but has problems getting clearance from American agencies as well as from the Saudi government. After finally obtaining clearance, the team finds investigating the crime even more difficult, blocked by the bureaucracy of Saudi military forces and by cultural divides. Both sides want the criminals brought to justice (at least on paper) but the terrorist hold in the region complicates the investigation.
Peter Berg and writer Mathew Carnah do a good job at distancing the film from politics while remaining aware of its political implications. For the most part, The Kingdom is a straight forward action thriller with a level of intelligence usually missing from these kinds of films. It is not conflated with the generalized ideologies that another Hollywood studio might package it with. Instead, the film is played for its story, which is incredibly intense and emotionally gripping.
★★★★
Chance Dibben
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
When the theater lights came on at the end of Across the universe, I sat stunned by what I had just seen. The music was great, the visuals were incredible, and the numerous pop-culture references, especially, and not surprisingly, to the Beatles, left me begging for more. The problem really came when
there wasn't actually any more to it. The characters, while all interesting in their own rights, were simple and had no more depth than could be shown in 20 seconds of screen time. The plot ambles along throughout the movie, making numerous stops to allow for as many songs as possible to be thrown into the mix, and reaches an inevitable conclusion that left me wondering how exactly someone came up with the idea for the movie. I'm picturing a room full of inebriated college drop-outs, listening to the Beatles and strumming along on their air-guitars. Someone says, "Hey, let's make a two-hour music video with as many Beatles songs as we can fit!" When someone in the room asks what it will be about, a third person replies, "Plot?" That being said, Beatles fans will undoubtedly love it, and if you can enjoy the drug scenes for how beautiful they look, if completely ridiculous, you'll then at least find it entertaining.
★★★★
Bryan Marvin