| | | An Elite FBI Team Sent to Find a KIller in a Hostile Country. Trust No One.
Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman ignite the screen in this high-intensity thriller about a team of elite FBI agents sent to Saudi Arabia to solve a brutal mass murder and find a killer before he strikes again. Out of their element and under heavy fire, the team must join forces with their Saudi counterparts. As these unlikely allies begin to unlock the secrets of the crime scene, the team is led into a heart-stopping, do-or-die confrontation.
"A high-octane action movie." A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"...a heart-pounding drama." Helen O'Hara, Empire
"...Berg and first-time writer Matthew Michael Carnahan do a smooth, efficient job of storytelling..." Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer
"Berg doesn't let up on the tension, even when the action is bloodless." Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
"A riveting, hold-your-breath ticking time-bomb of a movie." Pete Hammond, Maxim
Editor's Note
Actor, writer, and director Peter Berg (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS) delivers a fearless, action-packed political thriller with THE KINGDOM. Shot in the Middle East with unsettling immediacy, the hand-held cameras put viewers right inside the action, while the tension between American FBI agents and their Saudi counterparts maintains an interesting uncertainty about who's "right" and who's "wrong." The bad guys, however, are unmistakable: the film opens with a brutal terrorist attack on an oil company compound in Saudi Arabia, where a visiting FBI agent is killed. Back home in Washington, fellow agents Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx, RAY) and Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner, ALIAS), want revenge, and will do whatever it takes to gain access to the investigation. Fleury all but blackmails a Saudi prince to get clearance against the wishes of a timorous attorney general, and flies overnight to the scene of the crime. Accompanying him are the no-nonsense forensics expert Mayes, Southern-fried bomb authority Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper, ADAPTATION), and Jewish smart aleck Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT). Once there, they encounter the resistance of a Saudi government more interested in getting the Americans safely out of the country and avoiding conflict, rather than in solving the crime. They are assigned a smarmy handler with a weak stomach (Jeremy Piven, ENTOURAGE) to make sure they stay out of trouble. The team must navigate a maze of bureaucracy to begin collecting evidence, but they have an unlikely ally in their Saudi escort, Colonel Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom, PARADISE NOW), a scrupulous and intelligent officer whom Fleury befriends. Soon enough, procedure and protocol give way to car chases and explosive fire fights, and the current bleak political climate of extremism and violence is portrayed in a stark light with no easy answers.
| Features | History Of The Kingdom: An Interactive Timeline | | Audio Commentary With Director Peter Berg | | Audio: English, French, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Deleted Scenes | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Featurettes: Character By Character - The Apartment Shootout, Constructing The Freeway Sequence, & Creating The Kingdom | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: UNIVERSAL MUSIC AND VIDEO DIST |
| Release Date: 5/12/2009 |
| Running Time: 110 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2007 | | Catalog ID: 61101197 | | UPC: 00025195009690 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Standard 1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2008) | | | Screen Actors Guild, The Kingdom, Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture |
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"Mr. Berg, an actor whose directing skills improve with each project, shows himself adept at the rapid cutting and hectic camerawork that are fast becoming the lingua franca of action filmmaking." 09/28/2007 p.E17Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "[A] geopolitical thriller, with an emphasis on the thrills..." 10/04/2007 p.86 USA Today
"The film opens powerfully....Director Peter Berg's frenetic style heightens tension and a sense of disorientation...." 09/28/2007 p.4E Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "THE KINGDOM offers an involving portrait of unlikely allies pooling their resources against a common enemy." 11/01/2007 p.52 Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "It's the set-pieces that confirm that Berg is a director to be reckoned with..." 11/01/2007 p.44 ReelViews 8 of 10
The Kingdom is a police procedural with a unique - and interesting - twist. While the movie employs all of the investigative techniques we have become familiar with as a result of countless TV shows, there's a little more to this movie than CSI: Saudi Arabia. Politics of many different sorts play a role here, from the international need to keep relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia cordial to the difficulties faced by a female investigator working in a country where women do not hold equal positions to men. Actor-turned-director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) handles the tricky material of Matthew Michael Carnahan's dense script effectively and turns out a movie that is both intelligent and, at least in its latter stages, pulse-pounding...The Kingdom is a hard film to pigeonhole because it crosses genres so freely. The pacing is also a little unwieldy. Those who are there for the higher octane elements may distracted during the lengthy investigative section. And those who are hoping for something with the heft and complexity of Syriana may find the all-action conclusion to be a little too loud...Overall, however, the film is smart and engaging, and if it plays a little on our fears of the next big terrorist attack, it does so without feeling exploitative. - James Berardinelli
Reel.com 7 of 10
The Kingdom begins with a history lesson that alternates with the opening credits. Then as terrorists attack a softball game among oil company employees and their families in an American housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a widely varied assortment of characters is introduced, beginning with FBI agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) and including State Department officials, the attorney general, a reporter, and in Saudi Arabia, terrorists, cops, and vicious military officers. The opening looks as if it might evolve into something along the lines of Syriana, but screenwriter Michael Matthew Carnahan and director Peter Berg are no Stephen Gaghan. Their movie is nothing more than a standard-issue action flick gussied up in geopolitical clothing...It is a handsome production and Berg has a knack of creating suspense even from such obvious material. The actor turned director has been slowly building his portfolio since his 1998 debut Very Bad Things. After making the pleasant action comedy The Rundown and the sports drama Friday Night Lights, it is evident that Berg may someday make a truly great movie. The simplistic, jingoistic The Kingdom is not it. - Pam Grady
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