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The Kingdom
Metascore
56 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 37 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 37
  3. Negative: 3 out of 37
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  1. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    83
    Berg doesn't let up on the tension, even when the action is bloodless.
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: Helen O'Hara
    80
    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.
  3. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    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.
  4. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    75
    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.
  5. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    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.
  6. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    75
    Director Peter Berg and first-time writer Matthew Michael Carnahan do a smooth, efficient job of storytelling most of the way.
  7. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    75
    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.
  8. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    70
    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.
  9. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    70
    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.
  10. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    70
    A timely--if tepid--fantasy of American vengeance on the Qutbian extremists of Saudi Arabia.
  11. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    70
    The result is a slick, brutishly effective genre movie: "Syriana" for dummies. Which is not entirely a put-down.
  12. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    70
    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."
  13. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    70
    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.
  14. Variety
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    70
    A realist thriller that mixes crowd-pleasing mayhem with provocative politics.
  15. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    67
    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.
  16. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    67
    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.
  17. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Sid Smith
    63
    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.
  18. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    63
    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.
  19. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    63
    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.
  20. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    63
    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."
  21. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    Director Peter Berg's frenetic style heightens tension and a sense of disorientation. But some will find its chaotic quality dizzying and off-putting.
  22. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    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.
  23. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Stephen Farber
    60
    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.
  24. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    60
    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.
  25. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    60
    A thumper of a movie, full of furious souls.
  26. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    The opening is spectacular, but the rest is fairly routine.
  27. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    50
    The Kingdom is a barely coherent compendium of Middle East fantasies, fears and doubts.
  28. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    50
    "Syriana's" dumber, louder cousin.
  29. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    50
    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.
  30. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    50
    The Kingdom is essentially "C.S.I.: Riyadh," starring Jamie Foxx in yet another movie his Oscar statue will watch with shame.
  31. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    50
    The Kingdom comes down to a police procedural, and one whose procedures prove none too interesting.
  32. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    50
    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."
  33. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    50
    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.
  34. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    42
    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.
  35. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    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.
  36. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    25
    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.
  37. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    10
    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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User Reviews

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User Score
6.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 83 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 48
  3. Negative: 18 out of 48
  1. DarrenZ.
    5
    Rather limp for an action film. I appreciate the effort to use cultural conflict to create drama, but I don't believe the Saudi Arabians were well portrayed as they seemed very Western in their behavior and attitudes which tended to undercut the drama. What to say about the plot? It was almost inconsequential, really, since there wasn't much to it, and it didn't seem to drive the film forward in any meaningful way. I also question the plausibility of four FBI agents being to solve the case in five day's time, especially given the difficulties they faced and the fact that they didn't really start the investigation in earnest until the third day. By the end, the film devolves into a standard action-movie shootout with the requisite implausible physics (i.e. characters outrunning RPGs or being only slightly injured by an explosion that is close enough to shatter the windows of the vehicle they're occupying). In short, THE KINGDOM doesn't work particularly well on any level. It's barely even worth a rental.… Full Review »
  2. BrandonW
    6
    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.… Full Review »
  3. DerekC.
    9
    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.… Full Review »
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