Set in Saudi Arabia, The Kingdom is a political action thriller with good
acting and wonderful visuals. Its so-so script, though, at times meanders
aimlessly until a good explosion jolts the viewer's attention back to the
screen. Jamie Foxx stars as FBI special agent Ronald Fleury, who leads
an elite team into Saudi Arabia to find the terrorists who attacked
American employees working in the Middle East. He has been given the
unlikely deadline of five days to infiltrate the compound, with just his wit
and his crew, which includes forensics expert Janet Mayes (Jennifer
Garner), explosives guru Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), and intelligence
analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman). It's unclear how helpful smarmy
U.S. diplomat Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) will be, but Fleury knows
enough to surmise that the media-hungry Schmidt might not be
completely trustworthy. Foxx and Garner have wonderful screen presence,
but it's Bateman and Piven who get the best lines. Director Peter Berg
peppers The Kingdom with actors he has worked with in the past. Berg,
who guest-starred on Alias opposite Garner, casts Tim McGraw in a
small role here. (The country singer also had a co-starring role in Berg's
2004 film Friday Night Lights.) And Kyle Chandler and Minka Kelly--two of
Berg's lead actors from the Friday Night Lights television series, , make
impressive and generate a sense of panic that The Kingdom producer
Michael Mann (Miami Vice) undoubtedly applauds. While a tauter script
would've rounded out the action nicely, the action in many cases does
speak for itself. --Jae-Ha Kim: Amazon.com
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A complicated movie about the Central Intelligence Agency and its
agents, The Good Shepherd isn't your typical spy movie. Though it stars
Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity films) and Angelina Jolie (Mr. & Mrs.
Smith, Lara Croft franchise)--actors with considerable experience in the
action-espionage genre--The Good Shepherd requires that they play
more subdued and (much less interesting) characters here. The movie
focuses on the career or Edward Wilson (Damon), a privileged Yale
graduate who goes on to help found the CIA. He is a quiet, serious, and
guarded man, even in the most intimate moments with his civilian wife
(Jolie, in a role that wastes her talent). Set against a backdrop of real-life
events such as the Bay of Pigs, The Good Shepherd is meticulous in
creating a realistic timeframe. The film gets a jolt of excitement when
Robert DeNiro (in his first directing role since 1993's A Bronx Tale)
peppers the screen with appearances by Joe Pesci, Alec Baldwin, and
William Hurt. But those moments are too infrequent. At 157 minutes long,
the film is crammed with many factual details, but the characters are
shortchanged when it comes to development. Viewers have to wonder
why anyone, much less someone like Wilson who has everything going
for him, would devote his life to a thankless job that brings so little
happiness to himself and his family. The Good Shepherd is an ambitious
but flawed film. The actors do a formidable job with a well-intentioned but
meandering script. However, we meet so many characters and learn so
little about each that it's difficult to drum up much empathy for any of them.
--Jae-Ha Kim: Amazon.com
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