Classic Movie Review Judgment Night

Judgment Night (1993) 

Directed by Stephen Hopkins 

Written by Lewis Colick 

Starring Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven, Stephen Dorff, Denis Leary 

Release Date October 15th, 1993

Published October 16th, 2023 

The most interesting aspect of 1993's action flick, Judgment Night is how star Emilio Estevez held the producers over a barrel. Estevez is rumored to have been very low on the list of actors that the producers wanted for the lead role of Frank in Judgment Day. Naturally, they were chasing a big star, Tom Cruise. That didn't work so they went to Christian Slater who also passed on the role. The role was then passed on by John Travolta and Ray Liotta before landing at the feet of Emilio Estevez. The production had a small window to actually shoot and complete the film and with that, the studio offered Estevez the role because he was available and so many others said no. And then Estevez asked for $4 million dollars for the role and he got it. 

That's way more interesting than what happens in this dopey urban action drama which posits a mostly empty downtown Chicago a fully dystopian Chicago that is desperately violent but also a ghost town. Four buddies are traveling to the big city from the suburbs in order to attend a boxing event. Frank (Estevez) is joining his best friend Mike (Cuba Gooding Jr), Frank's brother, John (Stephen Dorff), and their obnoxious, pushy, irritating pal Ray (Jeremy Piven) for the trip to the city. 

Because his personality apparently isn't obnoxious enough, Ray decides to scam his way to borrowing a gigantic motor home to take the four friends to the city for the fight. Unfortunately, the group fails to account for Chicago traffic on a night when there is a giant sporting event and they wind up missing the start of the event while trapped on an expressway. With time slipping away, Ray makes an illegal turn and uses an off-ramp to try and sneak around traffic. The group ends up in the dystopian future set of Chicago, unrecognizable to suburban yokels like themselves. 

As the group bickers about being lost, Ray hits a pedestrian with the motor home. Forced to stop by his friends, Ray frets about going to jail as his buddies tend to the injured pedestrian. To say this pedestrian is having a rough night would be an understatement. Not only was hit just hit by a motor home, he'd been shot in the gut just before the accident. Clutching a bag full of ill-gotten cash, the man begs for help and the friends force Ray to try and find a hospital, despite his desire to abandon the injured man and try to avoid going to jail. 

Mike takes over driving and the group is on the run, choosing to try and chase a police car on its way to call. That's when the motor home is struck by a car and forced off the road. The motor home finally comes to rest trapped between two buildings. The men in the car that hit them turn out to be gangsters led by Fallon (Denis Leary). They break open the back of the motor home to snatch the injured man and they kill him. They then want to kill the witnesses to that killing and set off after our suburban commandos who rush off into those famously empty Chicago streets. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: Two for the Money

Two for the Money (2005) 

Directed by D.J Caruso 

Written by Dan Gilroy

Starring Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey, Rene Russo, Armand Assante, Jeremy Piven

Release Date October 7th, 2005

Published October 7th, 2005 

Director D.J. Caruso may have peaked too soon. His feature directing debut The Salton Sea is a gritty noir masterpiece that overcomes simplistic comparisons to Tarantino by out Quentin-ing Quentin. The combination of grit and style is perfect and everything comes together with the career redefining performance of Val Kilmer.

So what happened? Caruso moved up to studio pictures with the thriller Taking Lives and delivered a stylish piece of mainstream formulaic garbage. Now with yet another slick mainstream disappointment, albeit much improved, it is definitely time to return to the indies. The sports gambling melodrama Two For The Money is fast paced and stylish but compared to Salton Sea, it's simply not up to snuff when coming from a former indie auteur.

Two For The Money stars Matthew McConaughey as Brandon Long, a failed college quarterback who, after blowing out his knee in a big game, keeps his NFL dreams alive with failed tryouts in the arena league. While he awaits his return to the field he works as a wage slave at nine hundred number recording service.

Brandon's life-changing moment comes when the guy who records the NFL picks gets sick and Brandon takes his place. His ability to pick winners is Rainman-esqe and earns him the attention of gambling guru, Walter Abrams (Al Pacino). Abrams' sports advisors are a fly by night operation that skirts the anti-sports gambling laws by "advising" gamblers in exchange for a piece of their winnings.

Abrams transplants Brandon from his mother's house to a penthouse in New York City. Soon Brandon Lang is gone and John Anthony 'The Million Dollar Man' is in. Again Brandon's winning streak is uncanny and millions begin pouring in. However, as Jeremy Piven's fellow prognosticator points out; the sports gambling gods are fickle and soon Brandon/John Anthony's win streak is over.

Two For The Money moves at a quick clip and is a slickly organized character piece that falls prey to sports movie cliches even while only on the outskirts of the actual sport. What Fast and The Furious did for fast cars Two For The Money does for sports gambling, capturing the pulse pounding excitement, the visceral high of winning and the cost of losing.

What the film does best is capture the character of a true addict. Pacino essays a performance here with elements of his satanic character in Devils Advocate and his beleaguered publicist in the underappreciated People I Know and crafts one of his best performances of the past ten years. Pacino has not been this on key since Donnie Brasco and while it's not an Oscar worthy return to form-- the film itself is too flawed for that-- watching Pacino on his game is a real delight.

Matthew McConaughey still has a way to go to shed the lightweight image he has earned for onscreen fare like How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days and The Wedding Planner and offscreen for his much publicized love life and bongo playing. Breezy plot free actioners like Sahara have not helped either. In Two For The Money McConaughey strikes beefcake poses and makes goo goo eyes at Rene Russo, as Pacino's wife, but fails to deliver anything below the surface.

A feature narrative at its most basic level follows a character through a life changing experience that should make them wiser in the end. Essentially the lead character needs to learn a lesson. In Two For The Money Brandon begins one way and ends up just the same way. You never get the sense that he learns anything other than you can't trust a man like Walter Abrams. What lesson does Brandon really learn? How is he changed forever? Is he just never going to work for Walter again? Not much of a lesson really.

Pacino's character has a similarly flat arc. In the beginning Walter is reformed from every possible vice. As Russo's character puts it, if there is a meeting for it he goes. Once he takes on Brandon, cleans him up, and starts living vicariously through his winning, he succumbs to his demons and soon is the devil he once was. But was he ever really reformed? The film dangles a number of loose ends as to Walter's many vices and never ties them up.

Despite the troubled plot there is still alot to enjoy about Two For The Money, especially in D.J. Caruso's lightning fast pace and stylish big city setting. Caruso keeps the movie running at a rate that seems impossible to sustain and keeps it going all the way to the finish. The fast pace is probably there to cover up the thin narrative but it also serves to amp up the visceral excitement of winning and losing that pervades every scene. What Two For The Money lacks in depth it nearly makes up for in excitement.

But the best part about Two For The Money is the old school Pacino in rare form. Watch a scene where Pacino and McConaughey attend a gamblers anonymous meeting. Pacino's soliloquy on the gamblers love of losing is a four minute masterpiece of delivery and actorly flair. It's so good he really should have taken a curtain call.

The film captures the high that winning and even losing gamblers feel when in the thick of a big score. With a quick pace and polished look you barely notice that the film is all shiny surface. The filmmaking is so strong I can recommend it simply for the panache and composition alone. I cannot makes heads or tales of a betting line but the mechanics of sports betting are not the subject of Two For The Money but rather a vehicle for creating tension and excitement.

The betting line can make even the lamest sunday NFL contest a tense nail biter. Your team not only has to win the game they have to win by a particular number of points. Sometimes your team does not have to win the game for you to cash in.  They merely must lose by a particular number of points. You can even wager on how many points both teams will score in the game or which team will score first.  All very complicated for someone not in the know like myself.

Two For The Money is not for the recovering gambler, safe to say. The film makes sports betting look incredibly exciting and kinetic and will entice more than a few moviegoers into placing a few bets of their own. If the plot had come together a little better maybe the film itself would be as exciting as its betting lines. As it is Two For The Money is a flawed but always interesting movie that at the very least reinvigorates the moribund career of Al Pacino. For that alone Two For The Money is worth betting the price of a movie ticket.

Movie Review The Goods Live Hard Sell Hard

The Goods Live Hard Sell Hard (2009) 

Directed by Neal Brennan

Written by Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, Kevin Messick, Chris Henchy

Starring Jeremy Piven, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn, Ken Jeong, Jordan Spiro 

Release Date April 14th, 2009 

Published April 13th, 2009 

The makers of the comedy The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, owe a deep debt, possibly even royalty payments, to John Landis who's 2004 documentary Slasher is undoubtedly the inspiration for this comedy about a group of mercenary car salesmen who stage massive sales for desperate car dealers. No mention is made in the credits or on the film's IMDB page of Slasher but I fear, honestly, litigation could be on order.

I had time to ponder this as I watched The Goods because this inconsistent comedy leaves a good deal of time for thinking about other things.

in The Goods Jeremy Piven plays Don Ready. His job, really, his life, is selling cars. With his for hire team of mercenary salesmen, Don is in a new city week after week with a new sale to run and new suckers to take advantage of. His latest job however, in the middle of nowhere town of Temecula(?) has some unexpected pitfalls.

Hired by Ben Selleck (James Brolin) to save his used car lot from bank foreclosure and taken over by his rival (Alan Thicke, in cameo), Don finds himself beginning to question his mercenary lifestyle. In the course of business Don meets and falls for Ivy (Jordan Spiro), Selleck's daughter. And then there is Blake (Jason Sadowski) , a Selleck employee who may or may not be Don's illegitimate son via a one night stand two decades earlier.

Meanwhile, Don's team are also meeting new challenges. Brent (David Koechner), the team finance guy, has to fend off the unwanted advances of Mr. Selleck. Babs (Kathryn Hahn), team eye candy, falls for Selleck's 10 year old son. Don't worry, he's a ten year old in the body of a thirtysomething and played by comic Rob Riggle. Jibby (Ving Rhames), the team's ethnic diversity, falls for a stripper and hopes to 'make love' for the first time.

Naturally, there is an enemy and he is played by Ed Helms as a rival car salesman who also happens to be engaged to Ivy and a member of a so-called 'Man band' whose claim to fame is once having opened for the group O-Town. If you think he has much hope of competing with Don Ready you probably haven't seen many movies.

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is yet another in a long line of comedies that tries to get past predictable plotting by being exceptionally raunchy. The formula is however kicked up a notch thanks to the casting of some of the best comic supporting players working today. The all star team of supporting players is lead by Ken Jeong (The Hangover, Role Models), Tony Hale (Arrested Development), Wendie Malick and Craig Robinson. This terrific group pull laughs like the pros that they are and they elevate the otherwise forgettable movie with their uncommon talents.

Not that the main cast isn't good. I really like Ving Rhames in a very non-typically vulnerable performance. David Koechner's performance never goes in the direction you expect it to and Kathryn Hahn more than holds her own against the veteran launchers like Koechner and Helms.

The one performance that is just a degree off is Jeremy Piven who seems adrift between being the Fonzie and the affable, likable lead. The balance is never found. Don Ready is something of a loser, so no cool to fall back on and he is never all that likable even when he is supposedly playing vulnerable and in love.

I don't know if Piven is miscast in the role but he is definitely one of the things in the movie that doesn't completely work. The other is the stilted direction of TV vet Neal Brennan. Underlining all his points, Brennan directs The Goods as if mimicking, even parodying, other raunchy comedies of recent years.

There is nothing to really set The Goods apart from other R-rated comedies. Is it funny? Yes, and for some that will be enough. Myself, I was hoping for something more. Oddly enough, that is likely the feeling of most people who buy cars from guys like Don Ready.

Movie Review: Chasing Liberty

Chasing Liberty (2004) 

Directed by Andy Cadiff 

Written by Derek Guiley 

Starring Mandy Moore, Matthew Goode, Jeremy Piven, Annabella Sciorra, Mark Harmon

Release Date January January 9th, 2004

Published January 8th, 2004 

In my review of Mandy Moore's film debut A Walk To Remember, I employed the hack-y cliché “don't quit your day job” in reference to Ms. Moore's excruciatingly-bland performance. At that time, it was a justifiable, if horribly cynical, criticism of her performance. But that is no excuse for using such a cliché. Since then, Moore has made me eat those words (sort of.) Her pleasant turn in the pop-sensible teen drama How To Deal showed marked improvement over A Walk To Remember. Now, in her latest starring effort as the President's daughter in Chasing Liberty, Moore shows even more improvement as a charming, sweet leading lady.

Liberty is the secret service code name of Anna Foster who has spent her formative years in the largest possible spotlight. Anna is the 18-year-old daughter of a two-term President (Mark Harmon). When we meet Anna, she is about to head out on her first date ever. The date is a miserable failure that ends with Secret Service guns drawn on the boyfriend who mistakenly attempted a surprise gift. That's it for the boyfriend. Luckily, Anna has a trip with dad coming up that could provide an opportunity for fun, if she can shake the Secret Service.

On a state visit to Prague, Anna plans to meet up with a friend and head for Berlin for something called Love Fest. Dad doesn't want her to go but relents when she agrees to having a pair of top agents, Jeremy Piven and Annabella Sciorra, follow her. That plan falls apart though when dad breaks his promise and Anna is swarmed by agents while at a concert. To lose them, Anna gets the help of Ben (Matthew Good) who whisks her away on his scooter. What Anna doesn't know is that Ben is a Secret Service agent.

Thus begins a whirlwind romantic trip across Europe as Anna thinks she is evading the Secret Service while Ben fends off her advances while trying to keep up with her. Moore and Good have little chemistry and with all the next-big-thing talk about Good, I was surprised how wooden and dull he is. Moore, on the other hand, is effervescent. Comparisons to a young Doris Day are not unwarranted. She is sunny and sweet and has lost that cloying innocence that sacked her performance in A Walk To Remember.

Chasing Liberty is not a great film. It's full of typical romantic comedy clichés and those romantic dialogue bits that always pay off at the end. The typical eye-rolling moments of realization and forgiveness that you've seen a million times are not improved upon here. What makes the film nearly passable is Moore, who has found that kind of star quality that many actresses never find. Whenever she is onscreen, I couldn't help but smile. She is aided by a funny subplot involving Piven and Sciorra's Secret Service agents who fall in love while watching the first daughter fall in love.

Maybe it's my romantic idealism, but I have always wanted to backpack across Europe with a beautiful stranger and fall in love while scamming for places to sleep for a night or thumbing a ride on the back of a farm truck on it way to some tiny village that hasn't aged since the 1800s. Chasing Liberty captures some of that romantic idealism, especially in Moore's wonderfully likable performance.

Movie Review Runaway Jury

Runaway Jury (2003) 

Directed by Gary Fleder

Written by Brian Koppelman, David Levien, Matthew Chapman

Starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Jeremy Piven, Bruce McGill

Release Date October October 17th, 2003 

Published October 16th, 2003

John Grisham novels and the movies made from them are a guilty pleasure for millions. I say guilty pleasure because the work is often merely melodramatic potboilers that adopt legal and political stances that the author bends to his melodramatic will. Indeed, the law in a Grisham novel is often specious and more often than not inaccurate, but necessarily inaccurate to fit the story.

That said, the novels are also tightly plotted and populated by colorful Southern characters and terrific dialogue. It's easy for the non-lawyer crowd to forgive Grisham of his factual indiscretions because his work is just so damn entertaining. The latest of Grisham's work easily transplanted to the screen is Runaway Jury, a look at a trial from the jury's perspective.

John Cusack stars as Nick Easter, a seemingly normal video game store clerk. When Nick is called for jury duty, he reacts like most Americans, utter contempt and annoyance. However, that is merely a cover. Nick has been trying for jury duty and the opportunity to sit in on a huge lawsuit against gun manufacturers. Nick, along with his girlfriend Marlee (Rachel Weisz), are rigging the jury in a scam to soak either side to pay them $10 million dollars.

On one side is the noble Southern gentlemen Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), representing the wife of a stockbroker who was killed in an office shooting by a disgruntled employee with an illegally purchased semi-automatic weapon. It is Rohr's contention that gun manufacturers were aware of and rewarding the illegal sales of their guns by company owned gun stores.

On the opposing side, representing the gun manufacturers is Durrwood Cable (Bruce Davison). He however is merely the legal mouthpiece for a shady jury consultant named Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman). Fitch is the gun manufacturer’s hired gun for rigging a favorable jury by any means necessary. With the help of his team of investigators, Finch compiles blackmail information against potential jurors.

That sets the tables for a number of clever twists and turns, but not so clever that they wink at the audience. Clever in the sense that they play directly to audience expectations. The twists don't surprise the audience, but they aren't insultingly predictable. Screenwriter Brian Koppelman does a great job of adapting Grisham's tight pacing and colorful characters, even as he is forced to change the trial from Grisham's tobacco companies to gun companies. I say forced to change because lawsuits against tobacco companies aren't exactly a fresh topic.

My favorite part of Runaway Jury however is the film’s unquestionably liberal politics. Where so many films shy away from taking a stand on an issue, Runaway Jury is clearly sympathetic to the liberal cause of gun control. The gun manufacturers are the most thinly drawn characters and their smoke-filled private meetings in which all the major gun companies discuss their conspiracy is so blatantly conspiratorial you marvel at the filmmaker’s brazenly malevolent portrayal.

Director Gary Fleder is the perfect director for Grisham. His last directorial outing was the non-Grisham Grisham movie High Crimes. Both films have a mere gloss of real law and are heavy on the melodrama. Both films cleverly cast their films with actors whose audience cache get us past minor plot holes and specious legal wrangling. Fleder has the same talent for pacing as Grisham and while the story is somewhat unwieldy with a number of small supporting characters that get lost occasionally, Runaway Jury is still a very entertaining legal thriller.

Movie Review Smokin' Aces

Smokin' Aces (2007) 

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Written by Joe Carnahan 

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine, Ray Liotta, Alicia Keyes, Taraji P. Henson, Andy Garcia, Jason Bateman

Release Date January 26th, 2007

Joe Carnahan was getting his ass kicked. On his first blockbuster assignment, Mission Impossible 3, Carnahan was dealing with a restrictive studio, a demanding star in Tom Cruise, and an unwieldy script that just never made sense for Carnahan’s style of filmmaking. While it would have been a dream project for anyone in Carnahan’s position, leaving Mission Impossible 3  was a blessing for Carnahan who went back to his own work. With the blockbuster behind him, Carnahan was able to make Smokin’ Aces a movie that is perhaps the purest distillation of Carnahan’s style of filmmaking. 

Smokin' Aces is the result of Carnahan's studio movie frustrations. An ultra-violent, multi-character action pic with a final act that kicks the doors down. Smokin' Aces crosses a dash of Tarentino with a hint of Guy Richie and a little Scorsese. But this is no mere homage to other filmmakers. The final act of Smokin' Aces is all Carnahan, an operatic denouement that turns a jaunty exercise in major film violence into a grand guignol of violent drama and revenge fantasy.

Simply put, Smokin' Aces kicks ass.

In a penthouse hideout in Lake Tahoe, Buddy 'Aces' Israel (Jeremy Piven) is hiding out, waiting for the feds to finish his deal. Buddy is turning state's evidence against the mobsters who made him a star lounge act on the Vegas strip. However, do not make the mistake of thinking Buddy is just another snitch. This move comes after his attempt to transition from lounge act to gangster nearly got him killed.

While Buddy hides out his old mob buddies have thrown a one million dollar bounty down on his head and every top hitman in the world wants a piece. Converging on Lake Tahoe are some of the most bloodthirsty cutthroats in the business of cutting throats. Worst of this lot are the Tremor brothers (Chris Pine, Kevin Durand, Maury Sterling), crazed terrorists with no fear of killing in broad daylight, in front of thousands of witnesses. Throwing bombs, literally, the Tremors are as subtle as a jackhammer but they are efficient killers.

On the slightly more subtle side, Georgia (pop star Alicia Keyes) and her girl Sharice (Taraji P. Henson) plan on stealth but carry a 50 caliber machine gun in case things get nasty. On the international front, Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) is an efficient killer who specializes in the quiet kill. Assimilating himself to any situation he gets up close and personal with his victims and kills with icy determination.

The most underestimated and lethal killer is a shape-shifter named Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan). No one has ever seen his real face, he specializes in masks and various torture techniques. Standing against this evil menagerie are a pair of FBI agents, Carruthers (Ray Liotta) and Messner (Ryan Reynolds) who have no idea just how bad things are about to get as their boss (Andy Garcia) works on Buddy's witness protection deal.

That is just a thumbnail sketch of the plot of Smokin' Aces which also makes room for roles filled by Ben Affleck, Common, Jason Bateman, Martin Henderson and Peter Berg. These roles may or may not be essential to the film's finale but they all combine for one of the funniest, gaudiest and largest  ensembles of any movie ever. Smokin’ Aces featured stars who would go on to dominate much of the next decade as blockbuster leading men. It’s a testament to how much people believed in the vision of Joe Carnahan back in the day. 

Joe Carnanhan made a killer debut with the movie Blood Guts and Octane back in 2000 and Narc in 2002. But with Smokin' Aces, Carnahan affirmed his directorial chops with a slick, stylish modern thriller that while it evokes many comparisons, in the end, it's all Carnahan After two acts of snarky, over the top violence, the third act of Smokin' Aces becomes a hardcore drama in which Ryan Reynolds' FBI agent steps forward and takes over the picture.

Reynolds had never been known as an action hero or a great dramatic actor before Smokin’ Aces 2006 release but in the final scenes of Smokin' Aces, Reynolds matured before our eyes and quickly showed the ability to take over and dominate a scene with something other than snappy one-liners. The former Van Wilder is a true badass in Smokin’ Aces, an early example of the full power of his superstar charisma. 

Smokin' Aces is a high octane violent spectacle. A superstar ensemble cast brought together by a then rising star director made for one seriously cool movie that has somehow become lost to history over a decade and a half later.. Many considered Smokin' Aces derivative at the time and that perception perhaps lingers, but for me, the cool factor is just undeniable and that goes a long way to redeeming whatever elements may feel overfamiliar today. 

And then there is that killer third act which takes Smokin' Aces from just another ultra-violent modern thriller into a whole other realm of high cool. Smokin Aces is so cool that it’s no wonder that Carnahan has never been able to recapture the magic of it. Carnahan has floundered over the last decade doing punch ups on terrible movies and delivering some of the most forgettable directorial efforts of the last decade and a half. It’s a shame but at least he will always have Smokin’ Aces as a reminder that at his best, Carnahan made one heck of a great action movie. 

Movie Review The Kingdom

The Kingdom (2007) 

Directed by Peter Berg 

Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan 

Starring Jennifer Garner, Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins

Release Date September 28th, 2007

Published September 27th, 2007 

The trailer for Peter Berg's The Kingdom promises much more than the film delivers. Watching the trailer you expect big action, political intrigue and some mystery. What you really get in The Kingdom is CSI: Saudi Arabia. The first two acts of The Kingdom play out with the precision of your average episode of Jerry Bruckheimer's cop science show. The last third of The Kingdom however becomes something close to what was promised. The third act of this foreign set thriller becomes such a rousing action piece that I can forgive much of the dull imitation of a TV cop show that is the first two acts.

In Riyadh Saudi Arabia there is a strip of land where hundreds of American oil workers have recreated America on Saudi soil. It is here that that the terrorsts of the new thriller The Kingdom strike and kill more than 100 Americans and several of their Saudi protectors. Also killed in this attack are a pair of American FBI agents.

After some political maneuvering the FBI's Evidence Response Team leader Ronald Fleury gets his team, including Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) and Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), on the ground in the kingdom, as Saudi Arabia is called in private. They are not welcome as their Saudi Arabian police bodyguard Col. Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom) explains and American diplomat Jim Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) underlnes.

The teams goal is to find the weapons used in the attack, link them to a specific terrorist and kill him. That it plays out quite that simply is both a virtue and a curse for this interesting but not entirely satisfying thriller. Directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, The Rundown), The Kingdom attempts to be a mystery, a forensic thriller and an action movie and only succeeds at one, and then only in the final act of the movie.

The last third of the film is an extended action sequence involving the capture and near beheading of one of our heroes and his friends' desperate, violent attempts to rescue him. These scenes are expertly captured by Berg's handheld, whip pan camera and in Matthew Michael Carnahan's hard boiled, tight lipped dialogue.

The striking moment, and the films most true, comes as Foxx's Fleury and his Saudi counterpart kick down the door of a potential terrorist. Just before the action kicks in, Foxx asks casually but with some urgent good humor, which side of the door Allah was on. The Saudi's matter of fact response "We'll see" feels real, it sounds like a part of a story that someone might tell over beers after surviving it. It's the most authentic moment in the movie.

Solemn with bursts of awkward wit, the script by Matthew Michael Carnahan fails to give weight to the picture beyond the obvious dangers of the mission. Attempts at politics are fumbled miserably as scenes involving Richard Jenkins as the head of the FBI and Danny Huston as the Attorney General happen without context or consequence. Two fine actors are wasted in a subplot that never develops, in an attempt to bring political weight where none exists.

So just what is the political perspective of The Kingdom? There really isnt any. The film makes passing references to 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, and the war in Iraq. However, the politicians of The Kingdom are fictional as is the films terrorist attack which is loosely based on the 1997 Khobar Towers bombing and the struggles of the FBI in conflict with the Saudis and our own government, but it takes place in a modern context.

The films allusions of depth come not from politics or a subtext of war criticism or the futility of terrorism but rather more facile references to how Americans and Saudis and even terrorists are all just people with families to protect and care for. Thus why we have a few uncomfortable scenes where Jamie Foxx is established as a loving doting dad, scenes where his Saudi counterpart Col. Al Ghazi is seen caring for his two sons and even a scene of a terrorist comforting and teaching his young son about Jihad and American imperialism.

The family scenes feel like a fratboy's attempt at being deep and meaningful and Berg has always carried that fratboy air about him. Writer Matthew Michael Carnahan too has that air of fratboy toughness without thought, sensitivity only in the broadest strokes. In the end it is that fratboy sensibility that makes them terrific with crafting visceral action scenes but at a loss to tell us what it all means or give us anything deeper than 'everyone has a daddy'.

The Kingdom is a deeply flawed action picture that succeeds because its creators are skilled in the art of action and at holding a surface of professionalism. The film always looks good, keeps a good pace, even at 2 hours plus, and it certainly feels like it should be important. Unfortunately, there isn't much beneath the surface of The Kingdom.

A kickass third act is what recommends The Kingdom. If you go in with lowered expectations, lower than the Oscar nominatable expectations I had from that killer trailer, and you may find yourself enjoying The Kingdom.