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The Kingdom

January 24th 2008 22:24
The Kingdom
The Kingdom

Starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Ashraf Barhom, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven

The beginning of this movie resembles Syriana, the middle an episode of Law and Order, while the
end could be Die Hard With A Vengeance.


It's a well told story of an investigation, but it is also an interesting take on terrorism. Essentially asking, what if we remove the word terror?
What if we view the taking of life not as an act of war, not as an act approved of by religion, not as martyrdom, and not as political anarchy?

What if we consider the actions against, frequently, innocent people, just as crime.

What if we send investigators to a crime scene where detectives will follow the evidence, and hopefully, apprehend the perpetrators of a crime. What if we remove the rhetorical component of murder?
The Kingdom
The Kingdom


There are other elements to this movie, as well as the mentioned issues, of course.

The look at the factions and complexities of a detective just trying to do a job in the United States is shown to be beaurocratc and difficult; the Saudi counterpart's efforts are portrayed as equally frustrating and fractious.


To complicate the situation, imagine that the criminal act has occurred in another country. And the legal system in that country, an ally, is vastly different from the legal system of the country of the victims of the crime. The portrait of Saudi Arabian political stability seems not very flattering.

Jamie Foxx just seems to grow as an actor with each film, and the rest of the cast is very good. I did particularly enjoy Jeremy Piven in a small role as a US government official in Saudi Arabia whose sole hope is that the FBI team will leave immediately, alive. Now. Right Now.

The movie is very much from a United States point of view and well-made. Michael Mann is a producer of this film, and his participation is, I think, evident.
Recommended viewing.

18, 207 votes on imdb gave the movie 7.3 out of 10.


Other reviews:

variety

the vancouver voice

Asia Times Online

Japan Times





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Heath Ledger, Gone at 28

January 22nd 2008 23:10
Actor Heath Ledger has died at the age of 28. tmz has the breaking news about this life cut short.
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300

January 15th 2008 23:23
300 The Oracle
300 The Oracle


I liked this movie. Good action flick.
Mick LaSalle, writing for the Chroniclein San Francisco,
also liked the move
as did 20/20 Filmsite
with reactions from audiences in Berlin.
300
300

But, the New York Times panned the film, suggesting that it was “as violent as Apocalypto and twice as stupid”. Ouch. However, they also feature a slideshow of gorgeous stills from the movie NT Times

Amazon has a page for the graphic novel on which the movie is based, along with a place to order the history of the battle.

There are a number of cool sites about the actual Spartans, including Laconia and Sparta
300
300

There are a number of official sites this one 300features trailers, production notes, wallpaper and poster downloads.

Costing an estimated $65 million dollars to make, the movie earned worldwide, according to the internet movie database imdb$456,592,590.

Not too bad a showing....
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