Merrick here...


The Lost Boy sent in this look at THE KINGDOM; somewhat similar to one we've run PREVIOUSLY).

Being a Michael Mann junkie (he produced this film), I'm eager to see this movie for myself. Although, for some odd reason, my audience laughed at the shot of the baseball field blowing up in the trailer.

Of course, we were all there to see LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, so maybe everyone was drunk to numb the pain.


Here's The Lost Boy...

I've written a few reviews for you in the past which you've been good enough to publish so thought you might like another of the film I caught last night at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

Billed as the Surprise Movie, every year we get the chance to see an unreleased movie not knowing what we're about to watch, it can be a bit hit or miss but this year I reckon we got a hit.

The new artistic director for the Festival Hannah McGill came out to introduce the film, she kept it brief, simply saying that it was a film some way from release and that we were among the first people in the world to view it and that one of the stars of the film was attending the Film Festival Thursday night to promote his other new film. Now I knew that the Chris Cooper flick The Breach was showing the following night so guessed correctly it was him but to be honest had no idea what the film we were about to see was, which turned out to be The Kingdom.

The Kingdom is the latest from Miami Vice and Ali producer Michael Mann. Its therefore no huge surprise that the movie stars Jamie Foxx, I mean seriously, if they make any more films together people are gonna start talking.

The basic gist of the flick is that a compound in Saudi Arabia is attacked by terrorists resulting in the deaths of American oil workers and also an FBI agent. As a result the FBI put together a team to investigate the case who after a bit of messing around finally get to go over and look into it on the ground.

Foxx heads up the team which also includes medical hotshot Jennifer Garner, bomb expert Chris Copper and tech wiz Jason Bateman. The team are initially hindered by the local chief of police (played by the excellent Ali Suliman) who is under orders to baby sit them, his men are under suspicion due to the nature of the attack and is therefore not supposed to be getting involved in the case as such, needless to say this soon changes. Theres a brief side story between him and the hard nosed general who is assigned to investigate but its never really played out properly or has any real resolution.

As with Jarhead, Mann attempts to tell a serious story but does it in a manner thats less so. Although theres a heavy religious and political undertone theres alot of throw away one-liners and wisecracks, as well as some crazy action set pieces which are anything but true to life.

At times the film feels very rushed, the team finding and solving clues in tv CSI manner with little effort, almost as if the clues are being put under their noses with a note attached telling them what it means. Character development also suffers as you find out very little about the team members, the oddest being that they seemingly knew the agent killed in the attack but this relationship is simply explained in one sentence after the event and leaves it kinda hollow. Garner spends most of the film doing the "heartbroken" team member to try and drive this supposed hurt on but it really doesn't work as you know so little about her or the dead agent that you don't really care.

The chemistry between the male members of the team and Sulimans character is very good, and no surprise with a cast this strong, superbly acted out, they seem very natural with each other as they should, leaving Garner looking even more isolated in the process. Having said that this chemistry along with the action is the heart of the movie and makes what could have been a very dull and average flick into something worth catching.

All in all I enjoyed the film, its certainly no hard hitting political thriller and although there is a message which is driven home with the subtlety of sledgehammer at the end its not exactly anything thought provoking or new. If you wanna see a good high octane action movie with a decent enough current storyline then go see it, you won't be disappointed.

Cheers

The Lost Boy