Kingdom, The (Blu-ray)

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Director Peter Berg has not been behind the camera for many films, but his schedule seems to be filling up. Berg did star in one of my favorite all-time films, "A Midnight Clear." Before "The Kingdom," he had only directed the black comedy "Very Bad Things," the Duane Johnson feature film "The Rundown" and 2004´s "Friday Night Lights." Berg was not my point of interest in viewing his latest directorial project "The Kingdom." The involvement of actors Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper were my primary interest in watching this film about the volatile relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia and the continuing violence that goes on in the Middle East and its terroristic actions that continue to slaughter American civilians and soldiers because of their presence in the Middle East.

"The Kingdom" amps up the violence in the Middle East by depicting a large-scale bombing on American citizens who are enjoying a summer barbeque and softball game. They are there working for a joint Saudi-American oil company, but some Saudi nationals are none-too-happy about having Americans on their soil. With dozens of innocents slaughtered in the coordinated attacks and bombings, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) is brought into FBI headquarters to supervise the FBIs investigation into the incident. Unfortunately, he is forced to work with his team from his headquarters in Washington. Intelligence analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) asks if they would be able to travel to Saudi Arabia for a hands-on investigation, but Fleury reminds him that they know they are unable to step on Saudi soil because of volatile relations between the two nations.

Fleury uses a contact within the media to arrange a meeting with a Saudi prince and earns allowance to have himself and three team members travel to Saudi to assist with the investigation. Leavitt joins Fleury, as does demolitions expert Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper) and forensics expert Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner). When they arrive in Saudi, the welcome is not warm and the team is forced to spend their time and sleep in a gymnasium. They are supervised by Colonel Faris Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom). At first Al-Ghazi is reluctant to offer them any support or access to key locations. He hinders their investigation and tells them they have only four days. After some time, Fleury and Al-Ghazi gain a friendship and the Saudi Colonel begins to work the system to help Fleury and his team find out who was responsible for the killing of American civilians.

As it turns out, there are a lot of people who do not want Fleury and his team to find out what happened and who was responsible. The Saudis are inept at investigating the details of the bombing and it takes Sykes to uncover the method of bombing that killed their colleagues and the Americans who lived in the Riyadh compound. Fleury realizes that by making Al-Ghazi the hero of the investigation, he gains a little leeway with a Saudi prince. They begin to get somewhere with the investigation and are pointed in the right direction by a former terrorist bomber who has become a state witness to the Saudi police and military. Unfortunately for the American FBI team, the bomber that masterminded the Riyadh attack is looking to eliminate Fleury and his team before they can bring him to justice.

"The Kingdom" is part investigative thriller and part balls-out action. Much of the first act is relegated to the initial bombing and the attempt at investigating the crime by the FBI. The second act brings a "CSI" style look at the attack, but effectively combines the investigation mumbo-jumbo with a thrilling freeway chase. The third act puts down the pad and pencils and finds Fleury and Al-Ghazi putting away their pads and pencils and picking up assault rifles when they must confront the bomber in a massive volley of gunfire in a dangerous section of the Saudi Arabian city containing the Riyadh compound. The film nicely balances its investigative moments with the two impressive action sequences to make "The Kingdom" a highly entertaining affair.

The cast of "The Kingdom" is quite good. Chris Cooper is an amazing and underutilized actor and he steals the show as Grant Sykes. I´m happy to see that Hollywood is finding more and more ways to use this man. Jamie Foxx is another fine actor and is a formidable action hero that can exhibit brain and brawn into his roles. Jennifer Garner portrayed a busty American girl who offended the Saudi people. She too brought intelligence to her role and combined sex and spunk in what is one of the young actress´ best roles to date. Jason Bateman came out of the woodwork for his role in this film and I enjoyed seeing the former "Valerie" star find work after "Arrested Development." After Chris Cooper, I´d have to say my favorite actor in "The Kingdom" was Ashraf Barhom, who was excellent in bringing a tough, yet humane face to Faris Al-Ghazi. He was asked to invest a little more emotion to his role by the script than the other actors and he delivered very nicely.

Peter Berg´s "The Kindgom" is a highly entertaining film that walks the line between being a thriller and an action film. Some may have preferred the film become "CSI: Saudi Arabia," but that would not have worked as effectively in portraying the dangers of the Middle East. Others may have preferred the film to be a straight-forward action film, but that would have eliminated the movie´s ability to show how hard it is for an American to operate in Saudi Arabia. Berg nicely delivers a high-level look at life in Saudi Arabia and the film is loosely based on the actual 2003 bombing of the Ridayh compound. "The Kindgom" is not a war movie and it is not an investigative drama. It mixes genres surprisingly well to create a fast-moving adventure. It may not be completely faithful to the Saudi people and their actual hospitality and mistrust of the American people, but it at least suggests that everything is far from smelling like roses in the Middle Eastern nation. Take the film´s themes with a grain of salt and you can easily find yourself being entertained by "The Kingdom."

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At first glance, "The Kingdom" may remind viewers of "Black Hawk Down." It has a gritty and realistic look with an overly warm color scheme that lets its audience know the characters are in a very warm climate. This film isn´t as grainy as "Black Hawk Down," but it features a yellow-based palette with overblown contrast that results in extremely bright lighting and ´hot´ colors that can leave viewers wandering if they should don some sun-block. Detail is generally very good; with some stylistic choices resulting is less than perfect detail. With its second releasing onto a high definition format, "The Kingdom" still does not provide a true high def experience. The film has a detailed look, but the overly contrasted picture hampers the amount of detail and distorts the colors to a point where they are not vibrant enough to be enjoyed. The film used excellent source materials, but Peter Berg and the director of photography Mauro Fiore created a gritty looking film that isn´t intended to look stunning in high definition and it doesn´t.