“America, Fuck Yeah! Coming again to save the motherfucking day, yeah” is what they don’t quite sing as The Kingdom’s gaggle of FBI agents make their way to Saudi Arabia to kick some terrorist butt. More’s the pity. They might as well have included the Team America chorus for all the subtlety here.
Peter Berg, writer-director of the scarily misogynistic Very Bad Things, takes on global politics to equally disquieting effect in this high-octane thriller. Animated opening credits illustrate the blood-for-oil history of Saudi Arabia but from there, it’s revenge-fantasy all the way. Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and other actors that are way too good for this rubbish arrive in a Western housing compound in Riyadh to investigate the death of their buddy, who has died in a terrorist attack. Protocol gets in the way. Then it doesn’t. Yipee Kayee, Arabs!
To be fair, lots of terrific films have roots in dodgy politics and there’s no denying The Kingdom’s value as a slick popcorn entertainment. The characters barely exist. The plot is staggeringly predictable. You keep expecting the entire cast to climb into the Mystery Machine and drive away. Still, it pounds along, by golly, in its hypnotically vacuous way.
Enjoy the trashiness then check yourself in for re-education.