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Another Early Review Of Peter Berg’s THE KINGDOM!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
When I was walking out of the screening tonight of THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, I was given a pass for a screening next week. I took it, knowing full well I won’t attend, because it made my friends laugh. These are guys who attended test screenings with me back in the day.
The pass was for THE KINGDOM, Peter Berg’s film, which has been screening like crazy lately. They’ve shown it to some press, and they seem to be test-screening it a lot, too. I’m not sure if they’re testing different cuts or just one cut over and over. Whatever the case, here’s another reaction to it from someone who just went:
Caught a sneak preview of The Kingdom tonight. I'm the guy who sent out that I'm A Cyborg review that people didn't like because I didn't like The Host as much as the rest of the world. This won't be as in-depth as that one, so don't worry, as everyone will get the chance to see this.
I guess The Kingdom doesn't open until late September. I assumed it was going to open tomorrow or next week, as they didn't hand out comment cards or ask us any questions. They just let us in, told us to shut up and then showed the movie. Drum up word of mouth, perhaps? Which is a good idea, as the trailer isn't really... well, it's not very good or informative.
Anyway, I went into this movie not expecting anything at all. Peter Berg directed, and so far he has a great track record (The Rundown, Friday Night Lights, both really solid movies in two very different genres and if you badmouth The Rundown you're dead to me PS). That was all it had going for it. The trailer had explosions too, so I guess that was cool.
The movie had explosions as well, and lots of guns and gunfire. But what it also had was a very solid plot, excellent pacing, solid acting and solid writing. I was more than pleasantly surprised by The Kingdom, although if you're a shit liberal cynic you should stay away because there's not a single Shins song on the soundtrack and this movie never mentions No Blood For Oil.
Instead we get a very real, quite powerful story about a community of white people who live in Saudi Arabia and the bomb that ruins their lives.
The opening credits are some of the very best I've seen, and start the film off right. They immediately grab you and briefly fill you in on the history of Saudi Arabia and the US/SA oil trades. But everything happens in a quick, single moment, where one scene brilliantly melts into the next, and everything flows exceptionally well.
Then the movie begins. And I was enthralled the entire time. There are moments of extreme tension, very real tension, that doesn't give you a break. There is some comic relief, but, with one exception, it's never actually there to relieve tension. It's there to be there. And it's almost always clever when it happens.
But the most impressive thing was that it was FAIR. Probably the most fair portrayal of the situation I've seen captured on film, possibly since The Siege, which was pre-9/11 (I said it, don't kill me).
But the relationships between the characters work so well and there are never any towelhead jokes, offensive remarks or even a hint that the Saudis aren't real people but are only stereotypes. They speak their language with subtitles most of the time, so there's never a conversation between plotting terrorists in English, which is something that's always bugged me, and the FBI struggle in communication at times. No jokes are ever at their expense, and each and every character (major, minor, background actor) is a real person, which felt really damn good.
Everyone, including the villains, are real people and they're portrayed as such. Towards the end there were some things that were a little ridiculous, but only if you thought about it too much. It's a fucking movie and they didn't drive an SUV down an elevator (which gave me a huge boner in Die Hard, but in The Kingdom it would have been grossly out of place. That's all I'm saying. It's about context).
I also found the final scene quite powerful, although it did toe the line between powerful and contrived/cheesy/DON'T YOU GET IT LET ME BEAT YOU WITH IT A LITTLE HARDER. But thankfully it leaned closer to the former than the latter, and really wasn't about leaving that theater happy.
In fact, this isn't a happy movie. This isn't a turn your brain off movie. This is a sometimes hard, usually graphic, mostly realistic telling of a far too common story in a way that we have not had out of Hollywood before, and for that alone it gets my vote.
But, again, if you're a cynic that doesn't admire the hard work of someone who doesn't read Mother Jones then you're not going to like it and you should probably just not see it because it'll upset you and then you won't be able to shut up about how offensive or stupid or boring or not special it was because you've attended the Middle Eastern Film Festival at your local underground movie store four years running so clearly you know everything there is to know about the situation there and HOW DARE Hollywood even attempt to tell those stories when REAL PEOPLE are making REAL MOVIES about the same stories seriously HOW DARE THEY. Mainly you're going to not like it and you're going to badmouth it and I liked it and I used to be like you and then I'm going to think about how I used to be like you and then I'll get sad because I now have a college degree and I, quite simply, know better.
Seriously. Just skip it.
But for the rest of you who want a well told story that treats everyone like real people, well, go see The Kingdom. It's pretty raw at times, though, so be aware. It's not gross or pornographic, but it has some pretty affecting and distressing moments. Thankfully people seemed to really enjoy it, because already it has a lot against it: It's a Hollywood movie about terrorism. It has Jaime Foxxxxx. It's a Hollywood movie that attempts to take terrorism seriously. It's directed by the director of The Rundown (seriously. Watch your mouth). I'm hoping that word of mouth saves this one, because even I went into it looking for the toe tag and I walked out very impressed.
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I'll look out for this one.
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"It's pretty raw at times, though, so be aware." oh okay, sounds INTENSE BRO.
"Thankfully people seemed to really enjoy it"
what do you care? oh you're from the studio. -
Maybe this movie will actually turn out to be good, who knows. But this guy's endorsement means zero to me.
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"It's a Hollywood movie that attempts to take terrorism seriously" = arabs lick my butt.
"you've attended the Middle Eastern Film Festival at your local underground movie store four years running so clearly you know everything there is to know about the situation there" = what the hell are you talkin' about?
"because even I went into it looking for the toe tag and I walked out very impressed." = gay.
"there are never any towelhead jokes, offensive remarks or even a hint that the Saudis aren't real people" = I'll let this one speak for itself -
I liked the part when Peter Berg was fighting a bald Mitch Pileggi and getting assistance from his magical ghost girlfriend in the form of a love-powered locket. Those were the days, huh?
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I have no idea what my subject line leads into, but I will say that the above reviewer paints a delicate portrait of things not seen to those who would otherwise not see it... I have no idea.
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...the dumbest review I've read in a while. Despite that, the early word on this has been good.
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Reviewer may have a chip on the by now quite bent shoulder but thats gotta be one of the best kitsch reviews Ive seen in a while...
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Didn't really state anything that anyone else didn't know. Are you sure he saw a screening?
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So I guess that is reassuring. But I guess that I am one of those whinny liberal assholes because I think that this movie is…..in bad taste, maybe like fighting a fire by pouring nitro on it. Considering how touchy the subject of America/Middle Eastern relations is, is this a good topic? I am not saying that we should not do a film like this simply because we don’t want to offend the delicate sensibilities of Arabs (since it seems we can’t do anything right, we are the Great Satan). But it just seems a little too close to the bone for me.
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That movie was garbage. You are a highbrow fan of the cinema
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Like CAIR made Fox do for 24? You know, telling us that it is a fictional story, and that vast majority of muslim are terrorists,etc....
Maybe we could get Emerald Boy and some other Irish folks to pressure the networks to put the same disclaimer about Irish people each time they show "Blown Away", "The Devil's Own" and "The Crying Game". Oh yeah, "The Rundown" was good, so piss off haters. -
Warner Bros. Pictures is saddling up to bring DC Comics' Western anti-hero comic book "Jonah Hex" to the big screen, with the writer/directors of the thriller "Crank," on board to adapt.
Hex, known for having the right side of his face disfigured and wearing a Confederate army uniform, was a rough-and-tumble gunslinger and part-time bounty hunter whose adventures always ended in blood.
"Hex" first appeared in the early 1970s in the issues of "All-Star Western" before graduating to his own series in 1977 that ran for about 10 years. A new series was launched in 2005. The character also had a run in the 1990s that combined the Western genre with supernatural elements. It will be developed by "Crank" filmmakers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who are not making a straight-ahead Western but plan to develop the character with some of the supernatural overtones in the hopes of creating a franchise. -
Shove that plant up your venus cocktrap!
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This is a situation that I feel warrants an entire CAPS headline. Thank god someone is finally telling it point blank like it is. There is nothing more infuriating than reading talkbacks and seeing some psuedo-intellectual, holier than thou asshole spew off an arrogant one-liner about how 'this film does not capture every single detail of the entire history of the subject'. Of course not, you moron. Sometimes, we have to leave things behind. And other times, writers/directors/producers have to make an entertaining movie about a serious topic, so people who normally wouldn't be interested in that topic come for the guns/tits/jaime foxx, and then hopefully leave with a bit of curiosity about the real-world events that inspire the film. Fuck intellectual elitists, this reviewer rules, I want to see this now. And the trailer did look weak.
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make baby jesus cry
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Not that I took offense to this comment, but when did the term elite become such a dirty word? When you need an operation, don't you want an elite surgeon to do it? When you send in the Army, don't you want the elite Special Forces? So how has the term intellectual elitists become such a snub? Doesn't that apply to someone that is of great intellegence? Shouldn't it be more like.....fuck intellectual midgets? or fuck intellectually challenged people? or fuck you mouth breather! Seems the right wing has us thinking that someone who is smart is bad. Lets dumb down the entire country so the President looks WAY smarter.
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elites are experts at what they do. elitists think they are, and make sure that you know they are. elitists are douchebags, that's the main difference.
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how does someone win with you people....anything posted is going to get reamed...unbelievable
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do you have an issue with failure? are you an elitist? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!!!!
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leet
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I have go to know!
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because they're bad. really bad.
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they just don't have to get shredded for any reason other than they took the time to send in a review
its just one guys take....maybe not artfully done, but I don't understand the spite
or the guy who automatically yells "plant" - get ahold of yourself -
how come there is ZERO reviews for the Simpsons Movie. It opens in 2 fecking days .
The security around this thing must be tighter then a nuns a-hole -
i am sick to death of you whinning little bitches who have nothing good to say about anything or anyone... why agian was his review bad? maybe because he mentioned that the movie doesn't whine about bush lying and people dying... go suck a fatty
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He basically spends the entire time talking about one aspect of the movie, the fact that it was 'real' . . . very insightful. Does Jamie Foxx do good work? Is the kidnapping plotline too cliched? How is the action? Is there any real action? Music? We hear about none of these things. Instead we get a rant about how he hates liberals because they are so elitist only to finish we the fact that he is so much better because he got a degree and "quite simply, know[s] better." Seriously, for all the ragging about us being elitist you guys have a serious superiority complex.
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...because that's a plant.
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That movie sucked ass. Tarantino rip off shit.
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alternate death scene for christopher walken in the rundown.
priceless. -
Are usually condescending to the point of irritability....which sounds like most of the plantcalling, partyaffiliatedcopycats, and plain ol' douchebags that find something wrong with everything on every review ever.
All in all good review..Way to tell it like it is, without over-reviewing the plot and themes.. -
Get your own internet persona, dude!
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...or a couple. Seriously, I'm no grammar expert, but there was so many run-on sentences that they actually went on for a full paragraph. I got what he was saying but honestly, check your shit. And keep out the rants too, I can't stand haters, but no one wants to hear you whine in your own review, it makes you sound like an annoying angsty teenager.
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Was directed by Peter Berg as well. Completely underrated. He had a fine Dinner of Five appearance, too.
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Well, I guess it's a tie with the now legendary "bow guy" review of FotR. Seriously, why not have some quality control?
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I'd like to thank you all for your feedback on my review of The Kingdom. So far I've written two reviews, and both have been poorly received. Next time I'll change up my style again, see if I can find something more palatable. Let me know how you'd like me to write and I'll see what I can do about it. Again, thank you for your feedback. PS: The Rundown for Best Picture and than you for the Vern comparison. I'm flattered that you think so highly of me.
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Just try to keep the sentences shorter and you'll be fine. Also, maybe next time you shouldn't insult half the people who read your stuff. And it might help to write about more than one aspect of the movie (like performances, visual style, music etc). Kudos for being gracious about people (incl. me) ripping you to shreds, though!
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incendiary reviews + talkbacks! Ja Ja Ja!
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This movie has been coming out for so long that I no longer consider the trailer as a sales pitch, but as a seldom seen friend who keeps repeating the same story over and over, forgetting thaty you've heard this one before. Either deep six the film altogether and just keep rolling the trailer, or try a new approach - release the film in a serialized trailer form. With each new film, show us two and a half minutes of the Kingdom and save everyone a lot of time and money.
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Michael Mann is a producer on this project, so if it's good enough for him... I will give it a shot! That's probably how the "realism" factor came into play
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Sarcasm. I'm glad that one man's opinions on a movie that most of you have already written off is so important to you.
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what the hell is this review anyway...you better like this or you suck. Just give us your opinion and i'll make mine thank you...im sick of aintitcool trying to be a cool on the fringes movie blog type site...its really not anymore and hasn't been in a long while.
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...what, any moron can submit reviews and get them posted on this site? Ooooh, I get it! If you're liberal, you won't like this movie! Talk about being clubbed over the head with an assinine message. As a conservative, I enjoyed the fuck out of Syriana and other lib slanted flicks, so who the fuck are you (reviewer) to say who's going to like what? BTW, if you're not enjoying my TB post so far, you're probably just a bitch panty-waisted fool.
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Am not!
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As a panty waisted bitch, I'm pulling my post back. Worst review on AICN ever!
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groups and are surprised to discover that they're 'real people' too, and then decide to share it with others as though they're delivering a revelation. 'Did you know that not all Arabs carry AK-47s and only the women actually make that 'loolooloolooloo' sound?' I learned a lot from this movie...
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They don't. Which is something that Hollywood, generally, doesn't like to reveal. Because then that would make the enemy sympathetic, which makes them harder to kill.
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http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2944680
That's Nice! -
John Carpenter would be the perfect director for that movie.
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Everyone seems to share that opinion.
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...Who will gladly step up and put a boot up your ass for your smugness,ie "No Shins song or mention of Blood For Oil."
I want to see this movie in spite of this idiot's review and despite the fact that it isn't gross or pornographic. -
and as guilty a pleasure as Crank is, the last thing Jonah Hex needs to be is modern slick.
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I guarantee he jerks off to his own movies
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Jul 24, 2007 9:08:41 PM CDT
Sheesh, I thought this movie had come and gone already.
by flim springfield
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"...there are never any towelhead jokes, offensive remarks or even a hint that the Saudis aren't real people but are only stereotypes."
Well fuck it then! Just kidding. I love realism in films, and think that there should be more, but I also enjoy some good explosive films from the 80's with plenty of "stereotypes" and "offensive remarks". The Soviets sure caught hell in the movies in the 80's! What fun we had. But its called using your brain, or being "intellectual" enough to realize there is a difference between entertainment and reality. People are turning into a bunch of PC pansies. Do you think that everyone running around fighting the TOWLHEADS over there at the moment are all going to talk and act in one unified PC way? Bullshit. Life is a crazy, rich, chaotic mix. While certain people in PANNSYWOOD want to be PC all the time, the towlheads are out to kill the infidels (including you PC bastards). The U.S. should be smarter than that, and know that if we use a stereotype, it certainly isnt all inclusive. People need to be more concerned about religious extremists (on every side) who take things way too seriously, than whether or not a stereotype or something turns up somewhere. Maybe they should watch some South Park or something! How I miss the days of films like Red Heat! -
I better remove the word FUCK, and towlhead from my post to make sure its nice and PG-13 for the sensitive (panssy assed) adult and all those teens who certainly have never heard the word "fuck" before.
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High five, brother. High five.
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Sean Penn directed film. Into the Wild? I'm curious on your thoughts? thanks.
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could care less about the movie
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I thought The RunDown was fun but it's called Welcome to the Jungle here!?
The football one seemed well made but I think I must have fell asleep and also American football is a mystery to me?
The Kingdom sounds good and I'll see it now I know who directed it. Also is the director an actor in stuff like Copland and The Last Seduction because if it's him he be a Talented putz! -
Yo..Hey, I have a degree. And, that doesn't mean I read Mother Jones, or would stylize myself a 'liberal'. I think, however I can judge a book by its cover...because like Carlin says: That's how you know what the fuck is in the book. So when you open your fucking diatribe against a political point of view wrapped in a 'review' of a film, I just shut down. You need to brush up on your reviewing skills, in my opinion. You'd also do well to pull down your dictionary to look up 'opinionated' and 'windbag' and also familiarize yourself with terms like 'smarmy' and 'pompous' and if you're still reading, give a look to 'asshole' and 'dickbag', though the latter most assuredly won't be found all up in your Funk and Wagnalls. A movie about Americans in the Kingdom of Saud? Whoop-de-doo. When you gloss over facts like, our country's a little too chummy with these awful human rights violators to have a clear view of what 'torture' and 'unusual punishment' might be, and then make it a 'Wow! Saudi Arabia and we be friends! BFF!' and forget to mention that it was the Saudi funded terrorists that hit us on 9-11, you come off as an opinionated, smarmy, pompous, windbag asshole dickbag.I'm just saying, man. You come off like that, because you talked down to people you don't know right off the bat. And, if I want to see mindless violent kickass, I'll wait for Rambo, thanks. Your 'Biggest Douche in the Universe' nomination is no doubt a pipefitter's cinch now.
Bravo, prick. -
well said sir.
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What a hot porn star she is and her cameo in Very Bad Things was wankable until she died. ;-(
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As a shit liberal cynic, even I must admit how impressed and surprised I am that Captain Beefheart has joined both the GOP and this fine website. I know, it is a shame when people enjoy finely-crafted pop songs, or decrying the pillaging of other nations for their natural resources. Yes, in an ideal world, we'd all be ruthless Vikings who listened only to Godsmack. Thanks to you, oh reviewer, for passing the light on to us.
I mean, I have to hand it to this guy. And what I have to hand to him is some fucking punctuation. A period, maybe some commas or a semicolon - if I'm feeling frisky. The last two stream of consciousness paragraphs in that review were like magical realist literature, dude! In that they made me want to fucking slit my wrists. And had nothing to do with the subject of the piece at large, namely that stupid Peter Berg movie. Just because he made a movie about how your high school football shenanigans were noble won't make your job at CostCo any less dehumanizing.
And finally, "Jaime" Foxxxx? Is this some Jewish man who takes over Jamie Foxx's parts when JAMIE's too stoned out of his mind or too busy wackin' it to pictures of himself? I mean, Mister Oscar ain't shaped that way just so he can sit on a shelf, am I right? -
speak for yourself sport. She still looked hot enough hanging on the hook for me to finish.
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In all seriousness, thank you for crafting the best response in the entire list. I talked down to people I don't know right off the bat as these are the people I'm surrounded by on a daily basis, people who refuse to do any actual research. People who immediately wrote the movie off. I'm not sorry if my review turned you away from the movie, but I do ask that you read another, more in depth review before you make up your mind. Dislike me if you like, but direct your frustration here, not at the film. That is, after all, what I did.
Also, love the Wagnalls. Haven't heard anyone mention that since Laugh In. -
deserves accolades for taking a stance on a site were talkbackers will take pot-shots. Good on you, nameless reviewer.
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I win. Grovel for me more, anonymous plant-man! HAHAHAHA! I am teh win of you! A winner is me! W00T! I get the sense that you're being facetious. And I wonder where in the hell you could be that your foes would surround you and berate your political opinion? What the fuck. I'm saying that it wasn't a good review because you busted balls on people you didn't know..and your responses thus far haven't been the 'brave' stance against us bullies...it's been the semi-coherent right-wing ramblin's I've come to expect from you toolboxes. Keep on tranglin'Your buddy, and the winner of this here talkback...ME!
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I suppose I could see how you would believe my statement to be facetious, but it honestly wasn't. I'm not trying to take a stance against you "bullies", I'm simply speaking my piece. And I'm on the west coast of America, where one's opinions aren't listened to unless they're the opinions of the most vocal majority.
As for a left or right wing stance on things, I'm a human being with a mind of my own and I refuse to be catagorized into one or the other. Neither is completely right and neither is completely wrong, so I take bits and pieces from both. I was initially impressed by your statement, as it was the most coherent of the bunch, but now I see that you are, truly, no better than the rest. So continue to believe that I'm a studio plant, believe that you've won a battle that, quite simply, never took place, and I will continue to enjoy a very well done film that you will write off.
If you would like to take this further, continue this conversation, email me. kinomaris at yahoo dot com. I am more than happy to speak with you off this record, or to continue to have it be on, if you prefer. But I know that you know better than to be the stereotypical internet douche.
We both know better and we both know we both know better. -
Hey, I still win. I am the winner. Better than the best, better than all the rest...better than anyone...anyone YOU'VE ever met! And, let's be honest here: I'm writing YOU off, chumsley. See, you decided to have a dick waving contest, and I was calling the lefties you accuse everyone of being, the 'bullies'.I know that you know that I know that ad hominem attacks are fun and no way to debate a point. Hey, to put it mildly, cochese, you never said a damned word against the things I pointed out...Saudis begin horrifyingly bad at human rights...Anywho, I don't want to give anyone I don't know my email address. If you feel the need to respond to this...I hope you're doing so well away from sharp things or things with the ability to propel bullets. Because I'm in this to anger, annoy, and fuck around. Again, you lose, because I'm calling you out on your choice to whine about liberalism and insulting the intelligence of readers you don't know. We both know that you know that I know that we know that Harry Knowles knows that you know that I know that we know that Moriarty knows better. But again, bad review for what might be an entertaining flick. Jamie Foxx makes me laugh, he's a hoot. I bet this will be hilarious.The End....?DUNH DUN DUUUNNNNNH!
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This is a good film and Universal will fuck it up. They will market it as a mainstream action/thriller when it is not. This is why it was pushed from early summer to early fall, this movie is not easily defined.
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Congratulations?
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made for the 25%ers who still love Bush... at least that's what the review leads me to believe.
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In fact, politics have little to nothing to do with the actual film. It's about terrorism, and it's only about terrorism. I'm not really sure how you got anything but that from my film...
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