Movie Review: The Kingdom

I dragged my wife to see The Kingdom, she hadn't heard of it, and if it weren't for word of mouth at work I probably would've overlooked it also. After checking out the 4 minute intro at [url=http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/thekingdom.html?showVideo=1]Yahoo Movies[/url] I was really interested to see more. The story takes place after terrorist attack inside a Western housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jaime Foxx) assembles a team Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and Chris Cooper and negotiates a five-day trip into Saudi Arabia to locate the people responsible for the bombing. Once there they find their efforts hindered by the local protocol. With the help of Colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhoum) the team begins their investigation.
I really liked this movie, it felt very similar to Black Rain, Cops/FBI go to Japan/Saudi Arabia to solve crime. Fueled by anger looking for revenge their progress is hindered by local authorities modus operandi. They team up with Masahiro/Al-Ghazi to solve the crime. This is not a bad thing as I really enjoyed Black Rain.The movies intro is interesting and helps set up what transpires next. The attack on the compound will grab the audience I guarantee it! The movie does a good job of keeping the audience on their guard, throughout the movie there's a sense of danger where ever Jaime Foxx and his FBI team are. The sets are very impressive, you'll be hard pressed to tell the movie wasn't shot in Saudi Arabia....if it weren't for common sense. The compound scene is eerily similar to many locations we've seen on TV that have been attacked by terroroists. I haven't seen too many movies with Jaime Foxx but I was genuinely impressed with him in this movie, Chris Cooper had a background role, Jennifer Garner more than redeemed herself for Elektra, one fight scene she's in was just as crazy as any fight scene in any of the Bourne movies, and Jason Bateman supplied the laughs and the horror....you'll understand what I mean if you watch the movie.The last 30 mins of the movie is balls to the wall intense! That's all I'll say, go see for yourself! What I really liked was the message that the movie gives us, violence begets violence.

B+