Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3360 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-01-28
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Set in Saudi Arabia, The Kingdom is a political action thriller with good acting and wonderful visuals. Its so-so script, though, at times meanders aimlessly until a good explosion jolts the viewer's attention back to the screen. Jamie Foxx stars as FBI special agent Ronald Fleury, who leads an elite team into Saudi Arabia to find the terrorists who attacked American employees working in the Middle East. He has been given the unlikely deadline of five days to infiltrate the compound, with just his wit and his crew, which includes forensics expert Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), explosives guru Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), and intelligence analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman). It's unclear how helpful smarmy U.S. diplomat Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) will be, but Fleury knows enough to surmise that the media-hungry Schmidt might not be completely trustworthy. Foxx and Garner have wonderful screen presence, but it's Bateman and Piven who get the best lines. Director Peter Berg peppers The Kingdom with actors he has worked with in the past. Berg, who guest-starred on Alias opposite Garner, casts Tim McGraw in a small role here. (The country singer also had a co-starring role in Berg's 2004 film Friday Night Lights.) And Kyle Chandler and Minka Kelly--two of Berg's lead actors from the Friday Night Lights television series, , make appearances in The Kingdom. The action sequences he creates are impressive and generate a sense of panic that The Kingdom producer Michael Mann (Miami Vice) undoubtedly applauds. While a tauter script would've rounded out the action nicely, the action in many cases does speak for itself. --Jae-Ha Kim

Synopsis
Actor, writer, and director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) delivers a fearless, action-packed political thriller with The Kingdom. Shot in the Middle East with unsettling immediacy, the hand-held cameras put viewers right inside the action, while the tension between American FBI agents and their Saudi counterparts maintains an interesting uncertainty about who's 'right' and who's 'wrong'. The bad guys, however, are unmistakable: the film opens with a brutal terrorist attack on an oil company compound in Saudi Arabia, where a visiting FBI agent is killed. Back home in Washington, fellow agents Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx, Ray) and Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner, Alias) want revenge, and will do whatever it takes to gain access to the investigation. Fleury all but blackmails a Saudi prince to get clearance against the wishes of a timorous attorney general, and flies overnight to the scene of the crime. Accompanying him are the no-nonsense forensics expert Mayes, Southern-fried bomb authority Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper, Adaptation), and smart aleck Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman, Arrested Development). Once there, they encounter the resistance of a Saudi government more interested in getting the Americans safely out of the country and avoiding conflict, rather than in solving the crime. They are assigned a smarmy handler with a weak stomach (Jeremy Piven, Entourage) to make sure they stay out of trouble. The team must navigate a maze of bureaucracy to begin collecting evidence, but they have an unlikely ally in their Saudi escort, Colonel Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom, Paradise Now), a scrupulous and intelligent officer whom Fleury befriends. Soon enough, procedure and protocol give way to car chases and explosive fire fights, and the bleak political climate of extremism and violence is portrayed in a stark light with no easy answers.

Customer Reviews

Somewhere between an action movie and a political comment...
The movie starts sets out its stall right at the start, with the titles overlaying a potted history of Saudi so far, and how we came to the present time and the tenuous `alliance' between the US and Saudi. From there we have a terrorist event which takes place in Riyadh, targeting Americans, so that the FBI feel the need to send a team, led by Jamie Foxx, and including an unlikely but strangely believable crew including Jennifer Garner (Alias, Elektra) and Jason Bateman (Arrested Develoment). They have to work closely with the at first distant Saudi police Colonel whose job it is to protect them.
What follows is akin to any of a number of TV `procedural dramas', overlaid with the political backdrop of trying to function in the unique environment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That is, until the last act of the movie, which then becomes a straight, but very effective, action movie. Indeed, the action is some of the most thrilling seen for some time - while the hand held camera approach is somewhat annoying during the build up and political backdrop being established, once in the action scenes there is a visceral quality to events that really make you feel part of the action. You can feel yourself ducking when the characters do, in effect!
Is it a politically aware movie spreading a message about Middle East relations? Well, yes and no. It is in most ways a straight forward thriller, done fairly well. Indeed, once the action starts, you pretty well know how the rest of the movie is going to go. However, the Saudis are not just presented as two dimensional bad guys, but a multi-tiered and multidimensional society, which is in itself an improvement on many other contemporary movies on a similar topic. And the final few minutes do espouse a level of political message not evident through the rest of the movie, allowing for some level of pondering and bar stool conversation after the movie has finished.
A decent thriller then, with just a touch of commentary on the subject of Saudi-US relations.

Spot on
The opening sequence of The Kingdom documents the history between the US and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it only serves to pull you in from the get-go.

When the movie itself starts we see an American housing compound in Saudi Arabia being attacked by terrorists. The carnage it leaves behind includes many dead Americans. While the FBI investigates all incidents where US citizens are killed the politics of Saudi Arabia means the FBI can't just walk in. However, stings are pulled and the FBI are invited to observe the investigation.

The one thing I'll give The Kingdom is that it refused to dumb down its story and make the Saudis appear as little more than window dressing to a big screen American shoot-'em-up. While Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman all get top billing, the real star of this story is Ashraf Barhom who plays Saudi police Col. Al-Ghazi. Al-Ghazi was at the scene of the initial attack on the compound and throughout the film we see him as a man dedicated to his profession, with an acute sense of fair play, protocol and justice. Initially he is given the role of babysitter to the FBI agents as the Saudi's aim to restrict their movements. However that all changes when the FBI are invited to a meeting with a Saudi Prince. Given free reign to investigate the bombing their way the movie really kicks off as the audience is treated to a top notch story that touches on everything from culture clashes, forensic revelations, kidnapping, religious doctrine, and the self perpetuation of hate, all of which culminates in a final half hour of riveting, vicious, blood spattering action.

I've just returned from 10yrs living in Saudi Arabia and I was intrigued to see The Kingdom if only to see how accurate Hollywood could get everything that is Saudi. I was stunned to see that they had it spot on in every way - from the attitudes towards Americans to the uniforms of the compound security The Kingdom hit the nail on the head in every way. All combined The Kingdom is a really good action thriller with history as it's basis. Excellent.

Potencial for an excellent movie
This was one of the big disappointments of last year's movies.
A CIA team tavels to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terorist attack.

The acting lets the fims down a bit apart from a brilliant newcomer Ashraf Barhom ( watch this guy ) who plays a Saudi Colonel.

The plot is really good with good action shots and makes the movie have a fast pace , however is nearly ruined by two things ; the Americans are inmune to bullets fired from arab guns ( the arabs get it all the time ) and the final bit in the aparment block is precarious to say the least.

The production is ellegant and makes the movie more appealing as action movie than as a deep political drama. Siryana is a movie that can be compared to this , the former addressed the political aspect 100 times better.

A missed oportunity but entertaining.