The Kingdom
A good investigative movie with a few problems.
Review by Sirus

The Kingdom is a movie about terrorism set in Saudi Arabia. A compound where Americans working at the oil fields live with their families is viciously attacked by Islamic extremists dressed in Saudi Police uniforms. Many are killed at first by two such men who are simply driving through the compound and shooting everyone who moves. Once they are stopped by some brave Saudi Police men, another extremist man explodes a bomb he has strapped to himself in the middle of a field filled with men, women, and children. Large numbers are killed in the blast and that night, during the cleanup operation, another much larger bomb is set off on the clean-up crew. Back in America, a team of FBI agents led by Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) hears about the attacks and is gathering to decide what to do in response. One of their comrades was killed in the second bomb and they are anxious to get over to Saudi Arabia and help with the investigation in any way possible.

The problems they face in the process of getting over there end up dragging down the movie considerably as they have to deal with red tape and bureaucrats every step of the way. Even when they finally get permission to go over there, they aren’t allowed to participate in the investigation much at all. Jamie Foxx and the rest of the cast perform their roles well, exhibiting a range of emotions that are applicable to the situations. It was strange to see Chris Cooper play a more relaxed FBI agent after his detached role in Breach. The movie drags its feet through the red tape at a slow pace that makes it hard to stay focused. The second half of the movie does pick up enough that it ends with a bang once the team is finally free of the bureaucratic nightmare. There have been many comparisons from other critics between The Kingdom and an episode of CSI but the final fight scene is much more intense than anything I have seen on CSI in the past few years. The Kingdom is a good investigative movie that is kept from being great by the red tape that was added in for realism but should have been kept out to make the movie more interesting.