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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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The Kingdom (2007)

Rating: 2 Stars (out of 4)

Oiling Point

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy The Kingdom on DVD

The Kingdom is topical, but remove the setting, and you're left with a relatively brain-dead thriller. Director Peter Berg interprets the thin, talky screenplay by shaking the camera throughout, wobbling even more wildly when things get tense; he has no other visual scheme. A team of FBI agents right out of "Scooby-Doo" travels -- without permission, of course -- to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to investigate a vicious attack on an American compound, where families of oil employees live. The film pretends to be humanist, but in reality it's thematically closer to Rush Hour 3 -- Americans really know how to tick some tail! Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper play the team members, with Ashraf Barhom as their local liaison.

DVD Details: Universal's DVD comes with deleted scenes, four featurettes and a commentary track with director Peter Berg.

AskMen.com: The Kingdom

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom, Ali Suliman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins, Kyle Chandler, Frances Fisher, Danny Huston, Kelly AuCoin, Anna Deavere Smith, Minka Kelly, Amy Hunter, Tj Burnett, Omar Berdouni, Raad Rawi, Mahmoud Said
Written by: Matthew Michael Carnahan
Directed by: Peter Berg
MPAA Rating: R for intense sequences of graphic brutal violence, and for language
Running Time: 110 minutes
Date: September 28, 2007