Film

To explore the topic of terrorism and our messy involvement in the Middle East, Berg and screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces) have created an odd hybrid: an action movie with the occasional carefully placed bit of political critique. The results are bizarre, intermittently engaging and politically confusing.

When terrorists attack a U.S. compound in Saudi Arabia (the title’s kingdom), FBI investigator Foxx is determined to get a team on the scene, even though the Saudis want no help. He pulls some strings and gets to take his predictably diverse band of crime-scene pros on location. He’s got a gruff tough-as-leather Southern explosives expert (Cooper), a strong woman (Garner) who has little patience for the constraints placed on her in a Muslim country and a wise-cracking Jew (Bateman). It’s hardly the ideal team to put in Arabia, and tensions mount as the group shows up its Saudi counterpart. In keeping with the film’s carefully calibrated politics, there are two honorable and likable Saudi soldiers (Barhom and Suliman). But that fair and balanced view goes out the window once the action starts.

As he did in Friday Night Lights, Berg uses a super-restless handheld camera and wild cutting for dramatic effect, but he employs the technique so aggressively it seems like the cameraman and the editor had a few too many drinks before work. We know how they must’ve felt; by the time this was over, we were a little punch-drunk ourselves.