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Kingdom, The
Universal Pictures

Kingdom, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 56 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.4 out of 10
based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 64 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for intense sequences of graphic brutal violence, and for language

Starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Chris Cooper, Jeremy Piven, Brooke Langton, and Frances Fisher

When a terrorist bomb detonates inside a Western housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an international incident is ignited. While diplomats slowly debate equations of territorialism, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury quickly assembles an elite team and negotiates a secret five-day trip into Saudi Arabia to locate the madman behind the bombing. However, upon landing in the desert kingdom, Fleury and his team discover that Saudi authorities are suspicious and unwelcoming of American interlopers in what they consider a local matter. Hamstrung by protocol--and with the clock ticking on their five days--the FBI agents find their expertise worthless without the trust of their Saudi counterparts, who want to locate the terrorists in their homeland on their own terms. (Universal Studio)


GENRE(S): Drama  |  Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: Matthew Michael Carnahan  
DIRECTED BY: Peter Berg  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: December 26, 2007 
Theatrical: September 28, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Berg doesn't let up on the tension, even when the action is bloodless.
Read Full Review
80
Empire Helen O'Hara
Not quite as smart as it wants to be, and a better action movie than it is a political thriller, this is still a heart-pounding drama.
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75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Foxx is magnetic in the lead, and the subplot in which he bonds with his Saudi police liaison (Ashraf Barhom, giving the movie's best performance) is touching.
Read Full Review
75
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Though its violence is searing and brutal, the film, about four FBI agents investigating a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, shows a conscience and a brain, and if it explains things a bit simplistically at times, so much the better.
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75
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Director Peter Berg and first-time writer Matthew Michael Carnahan do a smooth, efficient job of storytelling most of the way.
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75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Overall, the film is smart and engaging, and if it plays a little on our fears of the next big terrorist attack, it does so without feeling exploitative.
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75
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Matthew Michael Carnahan's caffeinated script isn't much concerned with balance, but it gets some anyway, from the resonant images of culture clash that Berg catches on the fly and a remarkable performance from Ashraf Barhom.
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70
Variety John Anderson
A realist thriller that mixes crowd-pleasing mayhem with provocative politics.
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70
Village Voice J. Hoberman
A timely--if tepid--fantasy of American vengeance on the Qutbian extremists of Saudi Arabia.
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70
New York Magazine David Edelstein
Sensationally directed by Peter Berg, it’s a combination forensics detective movie (car bomb blows up secure American compound in Saudi Arabia--who dunnit and how can we stop him from doing it again?) and red-meat waste-the-terrorists action picture.
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70
Newsweek David Ansen
As a genre movie, The Kingdom delivers atmosphere, heroic American derring-do and some decent thrills, though director Peter Berg's approximation of a jerky documentary style suffers from its proximity to the more textured "Bourne Ultimatum."
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70
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
The Kingdom is distasteful in several obvious and irrefutable ways: For one thing, the idea of setting an action-thriller against terrorist activity that's all too close to real-life events is simply opportunistic and creepy.
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70
The New York Times A.O. Scott
The result is a slick, brutishly effective genre movie: “Syriana” for dummies. Which is not entirely a put-down.
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70
Time Richard Corliss
Director Peter Berg cannily hypes the tension and the sentiment in the only one of the current Middle East political movies designed to appeal to the action crowd. Hard truths are absorbed while stuff blows up.
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67
Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
Wants to be both a hot-button, ripped-from-the-headlines statement movie and a crowd-pleasing, rip-roaring action thriller. It ends up meeting each goal about halfway.
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67
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The filmmakers's attempts to balance out the gung-ho shoot-'em-ups with an overlay of "fairness" are rudimentary. The movie works us into a frenzy of righteous revenge, it makes us cheer each kill by the FBI warriors, and then it tells us that this violence only breeds more violence.
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63
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Berg has an excellent eye for violent extravaganza and the action - especially a 10-15 minute set piece midway through - is as cleansing as a high colonic.
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63
USA Today Claudia Puig
Director Peter Berg's frenetic style heightens tension and a sense of disorientation. But some will find its chaotic quality dizzying and off-putting.
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63
Boston Globe Ty Burr
The movie ends on a plaintive can’t-we-all-get-along note, but at heart it’s a Charles Bronson flick. It mashes the revenge button the real world won’t let us push.
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63
Chicago Tribune Sid Smith
The Kingdom has a heart and a viewpoint. It’s a thrill ride with a lingering thought or two in its wake. But the explosions, breakneck chases, daredevil escapes and predictability about which side will be victorious remain its foremost mission.
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63
TV Guide Ken Fox
Peter Berg's fast-talking and unnecessarily complicated tale of Middle East terrorism is more smoke and mirrors than meat. It may come on like Syriana, but it boils down to little more than a diverting episode of "CSI: Riyadh."
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63
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Ultimately, this jingo-bingo action thriller squarely hits its target, then delivers a delayed-action message contrary to everything that has preceded it. Berg heroizes the plucky Americans, but in the closing scenes of his ripping action flick, sucker-punches them. It's as if this populist Syriana frags itself.
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60
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
THE Kingdom has some power but not enough sense. A ripped-from-today's-headlines thriller, it wants us to feel as if we're watching something relevant when what's really going on is a slick excuse for efficient mayhem that's not half as smart as it would like to be.
Read Full Review
60
The New Yorker Anthony Lane
A thumper of a movie, full of furious souls.
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60
The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber
Berg's movie is no more than an action movie with an exotic backdrop. That would be fine, if only the movie were more exciting. It succeeds neither as a pointed political commentary nor as a taut thriller.
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50
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
If the jingoism that permeates the latter half of The Kingdom does not sufficiently sour the experience of watching it, then the film's closing sentiments about the eternality of vengeance will surely do the trick.
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50
Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
The Kingdom is essentially "C.S.I.: Riyadh," starring Jamie Foxx in yet another movie his Oscar statue will watch with shame.
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50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The Kingdom is a barely coherent compendium of Middle East fantasies, fears and doubts.
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50
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
“Syriana's” dumber, louder cousin.
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50
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The Kingdom comes down to a police procedural, and one whose procedures prove none too interesting.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The opening is spectacular, but the rest is fairly routine.
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50
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The heroes of Peter Berg's gung-ho retribution tale are fighting the terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them here, but his film is indulging in a queasy brand of escapism. Winning imaginary wars isn't the same as winning real ones, but The Kingdom nonetheless smells like victory.
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50
Washington Post Desson Thomson
One electrifying performance becomes the only saving grace of The Kingdom, a goofy action movie that tries to marry the blitzkrieg entertainment of "Rambo" to the cultural consciousness of "Syriana."
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42
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
So shameless is The Kingdom, ignoring consequence and treating its audience like cash-dispensing machines with buttons to be pushed rather than thinking individuals willing to consider the reality of America's entanglement with the Middle East.
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38
New York Post Lou Lumenick
The opening montage raises expectations of a serious, politically incisive depiction of the region. What we actually get is an offensively pandering, Bruckheimer-esque riff on the real-life Khobar Towers bombing of 1996, a Saudi Hezbollah attack that killed 19 Americans.
Read Full Review
25
Premiere Glenn Kenny
Its climactic highway shootout, and much else in the picture, is rendered in the best Paul Greengrass manner that Hollywood money can buy. But where Greengrass pictures aim to keep one on the edge of one's seat throughout, the tension here, such as it is, is designed to stoke audience bloodlust. If that's your kind of thing, The Kingdom certainly satisfies.
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10
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
At its core this is just another piece of big-studio nothingness. The characters are so underwritten they barely qualify as types, and the movie is badly paced, bookended by high-ordnance action sequences but painfully static in the middle.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.4 (out of 10) based on 64 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Nick W. gave it a4:
This movie was OK at best but the problem I had was it felt like an American propaganda film, especially with the "Kill them all" remark at the end. Just my two cents.

Brandon W gave it a6:
It was a good action flick. The reviews i read that say "0" are prejudiced at best. It's an action flick; it's not a deep, artistic film. Every film can't be. I'm a big fan of deep, intelligent movies, but sometimes i want to see a good action flick. Those of you complaining because it didn't lean properly to your overly self-conscious anti-American views need to get some perspective. I'm a Middle Eastern analyst and a friend of many Arabs. This film addressed the issue of terrorism fairly well, although somewhat simplistically. Yes, there's the revenge angle that's underlying in the film. I felt, however, that the positive work between the Faris and Fluery was more apparent, as it should have been. Americans need to see that there are a lot of positive people in the Middle East just as there are in America. Not every American is arrogant and self-centered, and not all Saudis (or Arabs in general) are terrorists or anti-progression. They want 3 square meals and a hot bed just like we do. Good flick...no Oscar nominee, but a good flick.

Spider A. gave it a6:
This is a film that doesn't pace itself, first turning to plot, then action, then boredom, then ending. It has so many empty characters, so many missed chances to thrill us, to wow us. Boredom- Towards the middle of the film, the action takes a backseat to try and support the weak plot that follows. In fact, the entire plot seems to center around politics and not enough on character and action. If I wanted a movie about politics, I would've watched one. What I wanted was an action movie, and from the looks of the trailer it seemed like an action thriller. In other words, the action wasn't even action. They seemed more like scene to intensify the movie, in which it fails. There are so may flaws with this movie, it's hard to pay attention to it without losing interest in it.

Ken C gave it a7:
Wow! Did this film stir a hornets nest! First off, this is not a documentary or a true story or even an attempt to convey truths. It is simply a action military film that was fun and exciting to watch. To read anything more into it assumes that the viewing public does not know it is not real.

Eric S gave it a6:
Kingdom was ok but it felt like every Middle East set terrorist vs. America movie I've ever seen. I literally turned to my wife in the theater and said "I think I saw this in another movie before. Must be Deja vu".

Derek C. gave it a9:
Wow! I am puzzled by all the really low reviews of this movie. Generally when their is such a difference in ratings as this one has shown, there is a political point of view that feels threatened. First of all, only someone who has been heavily sedated would say this movie was not exciting. The action scenes were intense and brutal. My only issue with any of them was that everyone walked away from the unbelievable SUV crash near the end. That was a bit difficult to take, but otherwise Berg's work was fantastic as it relates to action movies. I enjoyed the characters, especially that of the Saudi officer that is responsible for babysitting the FBI agents during their investigation, as well as the culture shock as it relates to Saudi and Americans daily lives that permeates this film. I would have liked a little more character development, but that takes times in a day and age when film editing seems to be at a premium due to so many people being unable to sit longer that an hour and 45 minutes. A longer movie would have also helped the investigation become a little more complex and interesting for those CSI types. The main point here for all reading these reviews is that this movie was not meant to make political point in either direction. So many of the reviews seem dead set that this was some attempt to glorify war in the middle east as some sort of a right wing propaganda stunt. This movie simply depicted the very real possibility of a terrorist attack against Americans on foreign soil, and how we as a country and individuals might desire for it to be resolved or at least dealt with in some measure. The human element of anger demonstrated by the FBI agents who lost a friend, and many American families that lost loved ones seems to have struck a nerve. Why? Whether we like it or not, this is a very real scenario. Forget being wrapped up in whose fault it may be that these types of incidents occur. This movies simply takes off after the incident and gives us a view into the very difficult situation, one alternative to responding, and how those involved might actually be effected. If we can leave it that, then maybe we could judge this movie appropriately.

James E gave it a1:
Upsetting in every way. There are no films showing USA, UK (You get my point) Terrorizing innocent Iraqis, or killing suspected terrorists in Afghanistan. Hollywood is at its worst in History and i can not bear another one of these films.

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