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The Lost Boy Visits THE KINGDOM!!
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
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
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Garner might be a bit out of place. We'll see.
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hmmm....
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Loved Friday Night Lights. Wonder if this make enough to get his R.E Howard adaptation going.
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Seriously - there've been like 100 reviews of it and tons of test screenings. I'm hoping it's as great as it looks, as Peter Berg is 3 for 3 on directorial efforts so far.
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I guess that's some kind of knock on LFODH? Unnecessary and completely unrelated to your article.
...not to mention the fact that the flick was a great action movie, and probably the best DH since the original. -
Suliman plays the 2nd in command guy, Haytham. The character you're describing is Al Ghazi, who is played by the excellent Ashraf Barhom.
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Also thought it was a great action movie that was almost as good as the original, a bit better than Die Hard With a Vengeance and leagues better than Die Hard 2. Quit yer bitchin.
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is better than Die Hard With A Vengeance are delusional.
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made Die Hard 3 look like Die Hard 1.
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Maybe because I had lowered expectations from the AICN reviews, but I also saw Ratatouille that night and thought all in all it was an amazing night of movie watching.
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He's far from amazing but he's no Uwe Boll.
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Nothing quite legendary enough to earn an "A", but Very Bad THings was a hilarious dark comedy debut, Friday Night Lights was a good drama, and The Rundown was an EXCELLENT fun action flick.
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Hey reviewer, Michael Mann produced the film, he didn't write or direct it... nor did he have anything to do with Jarhead. Implying that he did, and slagging off LFoDH makes you look like a knob.
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He's one of a bunch of producers. PETER BERG directed it. Seriously, can't we only post reviews by people who aren't idiots?
Anyway, I saw this last night, and, it is a really great film. CSI meets Black Hawk Down, with a bunch of annoying fish-out-of-water humor thrown in. Go see it when it comes out. -
The Director is PETER BERG. IMDB that shit if you want to be credible. Anyways....the movie has the same feel, music, and a couple of stars of his tv show FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. Go see this movie; great action in the last 20 minutes!!! But, I will say, that the movie does kind of drag in the middle.
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Pretty much agree with everything the reviewer said. Actually had no idea Mann was producer on it, but pretty obvious after viewing it. The gun fight at the end did remind me of Heat/Miami Vice (in a good way). Some applause and oohs and awwws during the action sequences with the crowd I saw it with. Really opens with a bang too.
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Very boring, actually. It starts off quite good, true. And there is one poignant scene, involving the husband of one of the bombing victims, that gives you an idea of how great a film it could've been, had they mined that emotional territory more. Unfortunately, THE KINGDOM turns into a pretty standard shoot-em-up, and an implausible one at that. Jason Bourne himself would raise an eyebrow at how easily these heroes bounce out of a car crash with guns blazing. The cast was good - ESPECIALLY Ali Suliman, as Sgt Haytham - but overall the movie was just not compelling.
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Everyone involved with this piece of crap are whores, period.
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Another film that Michael Mann had nothing to do with.
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For a serious movie it has a whole lot of great comedic moments.. but yeah this movie kicks ass all around.. The guy who plays the Saudi police officer should get nominated for a best supporting Oscar.
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