Three Kings
Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
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  1. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    100
    A daring, teeth-grinding experience that doesn't let the viewer rest easy.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    100
    An extraordinary experience: an original and brilliant combination of comedy, action and sophisticated political comment -- the best American movie of the year thus far.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    Some kind of weird masterpiece...one of the best movies of the year.
  4. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    100
    This audacious hybrid of cinematic styles is pure entertainment.
  5. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Diana Abu-Jaber
    100
    An all-hell-breaks-loose, panicky fever of a story, all of it drenched in grainy, color-saturated cinematography.
  6. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Sean Means
    100
    A biting satire of military myopia and political double-dealing -- possibly the best wartime comedy since Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H."
  7. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    90
    One of the most exciting Hollywood action films in years, and the best Vietnam movie since "Apocalypse Now."
  8. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    90
    When it comes to rousing action, whip-smart laughs and moral uplift that doesn't pump sunshine up your ass, Three Kings rules.
    All this critic's reviews
  9. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    90
    It's like a madly inventive hybrid of "Dr. Strangelove" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."
  10. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    90
    Off-and-on cynical and sentimental, Russell's darkly comic tale shows how much can be done with familiar material when you're burning to do things differently and have the gifts to pull that off.
  11. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    90
    Blackly funny, unafraid to shift emotional gears from farce to horror, peppered with spectacular action.
  12. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    90
    A brilliant exercise in popular but palpable surrealism.
  13. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    90
    Enormously entertaining.
  14. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    90
    The visuals are wild, the sound track has the audacity to underscore the subtext instead of just echoing the obvious, the comedy is irreverent and occasionally slapstick, and the metaphorical details are consistently strong.
  15. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Christopher Brandon
    90
    It's full of energy and drops an emotional bomb with its unexpected tale of reluctant heroes.
    All this critic's reviews
  16. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    89
    A war movie with a conscience, an action movie with a funny bone, a caper movie with a shifting agenda.
  17. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    88
    Impossible to resist.
  18. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    88
    Exhilarating, alternately funny and horrific film.
  19. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    88
    A work of strangely bold, distinctly American pop art - proud to be ashamed, ashamed to be proud, unafraid to ignore its commercial bearings.
  20. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    88
    You walk out amazed and refreshed by the way it kicks the assumptions out from under the genre.
  21. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Kevin Maynard
    86
    Russell has combined pathos, terror, and black comedy with a dollop of Hollywood feel-good patriotism to make one of the best studio efforts this year.
  22. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Paula Nechak
    83
    As entertaining as it is a viable, political message destined to make viewers rethink their stance on war.
  23. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    80
    An astonishing movie that keeps you off-balance from the first scene.
  24. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    A genre movie with an agenda that's too packed. Inevitably, some of the many balls it's juggling get dropped -- (but it's) one of the most entertaining and original actioners in several years.
  25. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Susan Wloszczyna
    75
    Visual pyrotechnics and dark humor aside, Three Kings rules because it dares to dig for such truths, whether banal or significant.
  26. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    75
    So wild an approach demands straightforward performances that don't draw attention to themselves, and that's what the actors supply.
  27. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    75
    So overstuffed with random fireworks that despite its politics, it's easy to imagine the film getting a four-star rave from Bush or Saddam.
  28. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    70
    Better than the usual Hollywood rot, but dialectical it ain't.
  29. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Gregory Weinkauf
    70
    A nifty little war movie that defies convenient categorization.
  30. Film.com
    Reviewed by: John Hartl
    70
    Closer to "M*A*S*H" than "Dr. Strangelove," which in itself wouldn't be a bad thing. But for all its engaging qualities, Three Kings doesn't seem to know what kind of beast it is.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 62 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 18
  3. Negative: 4 out of 18
  1. KennedyB.
    10
    The 3rd best film of 1999(next to American Beauty and Magnolia).
  2. JimH.
    9
    I just watched this for the second time (2006) against the backdrop of current events (ie. resistance to, support for ongoing war vs. terror). Yoon C (and detractors among the metacritics), while your comments are intelligent and incisive, I would argue that this movie is great precisely because it plays (and I mean, plays) along all those lines without telling you what to think. If anything it shows that all people's opinions are ridiculous and it imposes none of its own. It sounds to me like you are looking for a movie to tell you what to think of war in Iraq (that is, to tell you "war is hell" or something like that - the message you are expecting becausue you've already heard it in other movies and novels). Whatever else you say about this, it's a war movie unlike any other. It rocks first and foremost, but it also socks and it even (dare I say) does make you think. And it's still relevant seven years later, in ways that it was not when it was made. That anticipatory quality makes it much more artful than the huge majority of "deep" arthouse movies with a moral agenda. Maybe the best thing about it is that it gets the Schwarzenegger-set to watch and rewatch a movie where a child cries over her dead mother, where men are torn by morally ambiguity, where in the end we are at least given an inkling of how hard it is to "do the right thing."… Full Review »
  3. chicagopiano
    10
    Not for those who don't like politics. I enjoyed the original story, the acting was alright and it has just enough action to keep things exciting. Definitely worth watching, I would say not a popcorn flick.… Full Review »
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