
	Overview Synopsis Cast & Crew Critics' Reviews User Reviews Trailers & Clips Photos News Similar Movies Showtimes & Tickets Awards & Nominations On DVD

The Kingdom

Critics' Reviews



	Movie Title Avg. Score 1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon 2. The Blind Side 3. 2012 49 4. Planet 51 39 5. Disney's A Christmas Carol 6. Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire 7. The Men Who Stare at Goats 54 8. Couples Retreat 23 9. The Fourth Kind 34 10. Michael Jackson's This Is It 67 More Critics' Reviews \| Weekend Box Office


	Our Critics Say... John Anderson, Variety.com, MSN Entertainment Metascore ^® from metacritic.com 56 Mixed or Average Reviews out of 100 Based on 37 critic reviews

'Kingdom' a Mixed Success

By John Anderson, Variety.com

Shouldn't terrorism be treated as crime — that is, as a civil rather than military matter? It's a question that's at the heart of the Iraq War debate, and it's one raised loudly and clearly by "The Kingdom," a realist thriller that mixes crowd-pleasing mayhem with provocative politics. Although burdened by far more procedure than plot, this Jamie Foxx vehicle — which owes a great deal to the high-caliber style of its co-producer, Michael Mann — is quietly jingoistic, in a way guaranteed to sell audiences on the idea that what's truly American is about more than disputed foreign policy. ... More on Variety.com


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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
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."Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
70 Village Voice: J. Hoberman A timely--if tepid--fantasy of American vengeance on the Qutbian extremists of Saudi Arabia.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
See all The Kingdom reviews at metacritic.com »


	Hotmail Messenger My MSN Download IE8 Airfares & Travel Autos Careers & Jobs City Guides Cooking Dating & Personals Games Health & Fitness Horoscopes Lifestyle Maps & Directions Money Movies Music News Real Estate/Rentals Shopping Sports Tech & Gadgets TV Weather White Pages Wonderwall Yellow Pages MSN Directory