To this day, I have no idea how Jamie Foxx won an Oscar. Well, I mean, I guess the obvious reason is that Ray Charles died that year and the Academy felt obligated. I can’t be certain because the same logic didn’t work for Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line) the next year, though he was much more deserving. Maybe they thought that they couldn’t give out two dead musician Oscars in a row because it would be too obvious. Just imagine if Phoenix and Foxx won back to back years. Theaters would have been flooded with biopics of any and all musicians who had kicked the bucket in the past decade or so. Sorry, that was a little off topic, but it reminds me of how my mind wandered during the middle hour or so of this movie.
As far as plot is concerned, the movie is set mainly in Saudi Arabia and focuses on the FBI’s response to a terrorist attack on a U.S. base/mini-town in Riyadh, which kills several civilians and a few FBI agents. The lead agent back in the U.S., played by Foxx, then somehow manages to secure a flight to Riyadh for he and three other agents to investigate the attack, against the wishes of the government higher ups.
The opening of The Kingdom is intense, in that Jerry Bruckheimer, Black Hawk Down / Bad Boys II kind of way. Huge explosions, excessive bullets, and chaotic camera work galore. The bulk of the rest of the film involves a lot of diplomatic bartering, Law & Order-ish investigation, and mediocre attempts at emotionally connecting us with the characters. The movie picks up again just when you will feel about ready to give up on it. The ending is actually awesome; just thinking about it makes me want to spout off sound bites like a real film critic. In fact, I’d classify the last 20 minutes as, “a gripping, edge of your seat thrill ride!”
The acting was what you would expect for a high budget, shoot-em up war movie. Big names, mediocre results. Jamie Foxx was a logical choice for this role, he does the little that is expected of him from the script and has the look/demeanor to match what you would expect from the character. Jennifer Garner is unsurprisingly pretty terrible. There is usually a place for a generic, hot female actress, but not here. I imagine that this was similar to how Jessica Biel fit in in Stealth, not that I actually wasted my money on watching that. I actually feel bad for Chris Cooper (American Beauty), for being suckered in to wasting his talent on this script. He does a great job in basically everything that he’s in, but he wasn’t given much to work with here. The only thing about Cooper is that he has played A LOT of FBI/law enforcement/military types so this role here is pretty redundant. I did, however, hear recently during an interview with Cooper on National Public Radio’s Fresh Air, that after The Kingdom he was planning to not take any more roles of this type, so we will hopefully get to see him showcasing his chops in some more unique films.
I assume most of you have you have picked up on this, but The Kingdom isn’t something that I would recommend to many people. If you’re a desperate for an action movie, then I guess you could do worse, but you could also certainly do a lot better. In fact, if you really need a Jamie Foxx fix within the same genre, then rent Jarhead. It’s another Middle East war movie, but it actually managed to establish an emotional connection to the characters.
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