The Kingdom

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: September 28th, 2007 (wide)

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Tom Bresnahan
 
Directed by: Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights)

Premise: A team of U.S. counter-terrorism investigators set out to find the perpetrators behind a deadly attack on Americans in a Middle Eastern country. In order to work through the bureaucracy and cultural hostility, the team enlists a local police officer, but still finds itself target for the terrorists.

[Fernando]

  Nobody saw this?

I saw it yesterday without no expectations whatsoever and actually loved it, in fact it's the best action/thriller film of this summer if you don't count Bourne, although if I'm very honest I enjoyed The Kingdom more than Bourne, I guess because my expecations on Ultimatum were pretty high so there's no surprise element of being better than I thought.

The final 30 minutes were pretty intense and had me at the edge of my seat; I think guys like Mac (you buy everything so get this), Kal and maybe GT will love this, overall I recommend it to everyone who likes well made action films.

If mod has the mini skulls for the horror flicks I would give to this action film 9 machineguns. 

[children with angels]

I went to see this because I thought it was at least minorly important as the first real attempt by Hollywood to deal with the current Middle Eastern situation into a fairly straightforward genre film context.

I thought it was a fairly solid thriller, which made some admirable attempts at political/ cultural intelligence, though let itself down somewhat through the ways in which its "humanize some middle easterns" project was carried out (i.e.: in as ethnocentric a way as you might reasonably fear). However, its opening (i.e.: the first montage sequence) and the ending (the last few lines) were fantastic - far more interesting and affecting than you might expect. I've written a piece on the film's politics here (http://www.alternatetakes.co.uk/?2007,10,181), if anyone's interested.

[Sleepless]

I saw this on openning weekend, main reason being I like Jennifer Garner. I didn't like it. I didn't NOT like it, per se. But I felt it offered absolutely nothing new. To be honest it was a while ago now, so I can't remember it that well, my thought on it not that clear anymore. I basically thought it was Fox News: Hollywood style.

[MacGuffin]

I think guys like Mac (you buy everything so get this), Kal and maybe GT will love this, overall I recommend it to everyone who likes well made action films.

You're right; I did like this. It surprised me. Peter Berg is becoming a very accomplished director. The mentioned 30 minutes was very intense and on the same level as Black Hawk Down. My only gripe was Garner. I'm a fan of her's, but here she seemed so out of place and so un-Alias-like for a tough chick. The way she played her emotions felt very forced; almost overacting. Thank God Bateman picks up the slack.