The Movie Review Squad met unexpectedly at Orchard over the weekend and while Cynthia and TK were having coffee and cake at The Centrepoint, I was assigned to walk over to Cineleisure and pick a movie in the name of spontaneity. If it was up to me, I would have picked a Japanese movie for a change. For lack of a better choice, we settled on “The Kingdom”.
I knew what “The Kingdom” is about and I also knew that this movie is written by Matthew Michael Carnahan – the same screenwriter who wrote “Lions for Lambs”. While “Lions for Lambs” focuses on the politics with the special US operation at Afghanistan as the background, “The Kingdom” centers at the US counter-terrorism investigators inside Saudi Arabia having politics as the background instead. Majority of the movie was filmed on locations in America while part of it was filmed on UAE. Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner played the characters of the investigators (a team of 4 in total) and part of the movie reminded me of CSI and Alias. What I really enjoy watching was the acting performance of the two Israeli Arab actors Ashraf Barhom and Ali Suliman. Although “The Kingdom” is lacking in character development – which is understandable as it is a thriller, the bonding development between the US investigators and the Arab guards is perhaps the highlight of the movie. Some of the lighter moments arise due to the cultural differences between American and the Arab are nice to watch, amid such an intense thriller type of plot.
When I reflect upon the storyline, I wonder if the result of the investigation was linked to luck or good preparation or a bit of both. Then again, if the plot manages to entertain, who cares (I actually do unfortunately)? Perhaps not a must-watch type of movie but something to entertain when you run out of ideas.