Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

I saw this one on Monday night, but I haven’t gotten around to writing a review of the film yet. I probably won’t until after I write about Ang Lee’s LUST, CAUTION (opening only in NYC today) and finish posting two interviews this weekend.

But I’ll say this much: I think it’s a solid movie, another in a long line from Berg. I think he’s a very good filmmaker with a pretty right-down-the-middle commercial mind. He makes big studio movies that aren’t really high art, but they’re certainly not cookie-cutter junk, either. He takes his movies seriously, even when they’re “just” entertainment, and he seems to be getting more confident with each film.

You should definitely check out the first four minutes of the movie, the stylish and fascinating opening title sequence. It’s a mini-movie, and is basically designed to make sure that even the dumbest, least-aware member of the audience feels like an expert on the modern history of the Middle East.

And then check out Capone’s review of the film:

Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here, gearing up for the Chicago Film Festival, which begins Thursday, October 4, with Opening Night film THE KITE RUNNER, the latest film from director Marc Forster, who helmed the previous CIFF opening night offering STRANGER THAN FICTION, as well as MONSTER'S BALL. I've seen many of the higher-profile films on tap for this year's event, and I'll have a more extensive preview for you next week.

And for the third, non-consecutive year, yours truly has been selected to be on the Festival jury for the short film competition, so I'll even be able to recommend the best of the four shorts programs this year. This is my busy season, and I'm attempting to brace myself, getting lots of sleep, drinking lots of fluids (but not too many; some of these films are long), and just generally getting the right frame of mind to watch between 35-40 films over the course of two weeks. I'll see you on the other side and a couple times in the midst of the chaos. But before I can think about the Festival, I've got a few new releases to throw your way.

Two weeks ago, the emotionally draining IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH had a limited opening to much critical praise and some small amount of box office. This week, that film's polar opposite — a film that cares more about action, revenge, and stereotyping than any kind of lasting emotional impact the war in the Middle East might have on the soldiers fighting in it or those back home — opens wide with a big, splashy ad campaign and a handful of high-profile actors in key roles. To give credit where credit is due, director Peter Berg's THE KINGDOM is a well-crafted shoot 'em up/blow 'em up movie with more heart than most action films these days. But one can't help but get the sense that Berg and company have dumbed down some of the most complex political scenarios in world history just to keep audiences' heads from exploding with details.

Making an interesting case that many terrorists are hiding in Saudi Arabia (remember that most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi-born), the film opens with an absolutely chilling series of events concerning a suicide bombing at a softball game in an area of Saudi Arabia where many American pipeline workers live. Once all of the rescue workers and investigators arrive on the scene, another bomb goes off, killing everyone. The U.S. government maintains its stance that it will not send any investigators to this friendly nation, but FBI Special Agent Fleury (Jamie Foxx) gets special permission to bring in a team of forensic experts to survey the scene and search for the killers. All of this has to happen in five days. The team includes such unlikely members as Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper, who seems a bit embarrassed to be in this movie. What follows are repeated exercises in good old American aggression. Although they are meant to be nothing more than observers and advisers, they essentially take over after the first day, bullying local law enforcement and walking around a somewhat hostile nation like they're bulletproof. Sometimes their behavior is pretty funny, but most time it's kind of cringe inducing.

It's clear early on that the local royalty may not want to have this crime solved, certainly not by Americans. One of the more fascinating characters in THE KINGDOM is the team's escort, a Saudi colonel played by Ashraf Barhoum (so good in PARADISE NOW and THE SYRIAN BRIDE), who actually seems to be genuinely interested in capturing the terrorist cell that carried out this terrible attack. Jeremy Piven is seen buzzing around in a couple of scene as a State Department representative who foolishly tries to get the team out of the area as soon as possible.

I don't want to give too much away, but it should come as no surprise that the team manages to do in just a couple of days what the entire Saudi police force can't (or won't) do with years of experience and knowledge of the area. Bullets are flying; bodies are dropping; familiar commands like "Move in!" and "Go! Go! Go!" and "Lock and load!" are bellowed with the appropriate amount of enthusiasm. But it became increasingly difficult for me to suspend my disbelief that this team wouldn't have been shut down after day one of behaving like a bunch of spoiled children who have never been told "No" in their entire lives. All the yelling, all the explosions, all the faux solemnity really began to annoy the piss out of me at about the halfway point. There's an interesting story to be told here, for sure, and I think Peter Berg is a solid director in most circumstances, but he and his actors are just trying way too hard to be bad-asses, when even the slightest amount of subtlety might have worked better.

Capone