The Kingdom

THE KINGDOM (2007) - Oct. 5, 2007
About a group of FBI agents who go to Saudi Arabia to investigate the bombing of an American compound, this was a mediocre film. The main problem here is Peter Berg's awful direction; he takes a page from Paul Greengrass' book and shoots the film with an annoyingly jittery camera, going into overdrive during the action scenes and making them almost completely incoherent and unwatchable. Aside from that, the majority of the film isn't particularly compelling, with the stock characters investigating the explosion (sort of -- they spend days there and yet all they seem to find out is that the bad guys used ball bearings in their explosives, and that the evil mastermind may or may not have missing fingers). The whole thing would be passably mediocre -- but then there's Berg's annoying direction, which always keeps you at arm's length, reminding you at all times that you're watching a movie and making it pretty much impossible to get wrapped up in the story. **