"Three Kings" is the third film from director and screenwriter David O. Russell, each of which has had a significantly bigger budget than the previous one. He's arrived at the big time with "Three Kings", which seems certain to be the action adventure hit of the fall.
I haven't seen his second film, "Flirting with Disaster", but I think very highly of his first film, "Spanking the Monkey". Russell was less ambitious back then, concentrating on character study. With "Three Kings", characters are something to be defined quickly and briefly, so that we can move on to more important stuff, like shooting and torturing, and commentary on American warmongering.
"Three Kings" begins as a simple action film.
It is the end of the 1991 war with Iraq. Kuwait
has been liberated, but Saddam Hussein remains in
power. He has turned his energies to suppressing
rebellions. The still-present American troops are
told to ignore the killings, as a cease fire is in
effect.
Iraqi soldiers are surrendering to Americans by the
thousands. One of them has a map in his you-know-where.
Special Forces veteran Archie Gates (George Clooney)
learns of this, and leads an unauthorized raid on
a lightly guarded Iraqi bunker to steal gold bars
plundered from Kuwait. His team consists of glum
Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg), religious Chief Elgin
(Ice Cube) and comic relief Vig (Spike Jonze).
While stealing Saddam's gold is the initial goal,
the makeshift commando team becomes involved in
the Iraqi Civil War, defending a large number of
peasants from certain slaughter. Gates has a
change of heart equivalent to that of Oskar
Schindler.
There were things that I liked about "Three
Kings". Bullets are depicted moving inside
the body, creating a weird you-are-there feel.
One of the soldiers gets a bullet in the lung.
Effective drama is made of his gasping for
breath, with clever improvising coming to his
rescue. Clooney gives a good performance,
which should help live down the disaster of
"Batman & Robin".
But I don't feel that "Three Kings" is a good
movie, much less the great movie that some
are calling it. The biggest problem for me
was the characters. Gates' change of heart
seems unlikely. Vig is so stupid and ignorant
that it is a surprise he was sent to Iraq,
much less let in on Gates' commando raid. His
confusion between gold bullion and soup cubes
drew some laughs at the theater, but for me,
nobody could be that stupid. He's basically
a familiar redneck stereotype. Chief Elgin
keeps explaining his religious philosophy,
without it ever making any sense. There is a
pretty blonde reporter who seems more interested
in seducing soldiers than in a story, and has a
big catfight with another famous woman reporter
in front of several soldiers, just as you would
never see in real life.
I also had reservations about the action scenes.
The Iraqi soldiers repress and kill villagers
before the eyes of the American soldiers, who
are about to leave. In real life, they would
have waited until the Americans had left. There
is a shootout in super slow motion, to extend
our supposed fascination with dying, falling
bodies. An American soldier is tortured when
he can't explain why Michael Jackson has
gone white.
I wish that I could have enjoyed "Three Kings"
as other reviewers have. But my hope is that
Russell leaves the big budget adventure films
to someone else, and uses his talents once
again on well developed character studies. (54/100)
When restless American footsoldiers left out of Operation Desert Storm's high-tech warfare go on a renegade missions to loot $23 million in Iraqi gold...More at HotMovieSale.com
Absurdly comic, highly kinetic, at times shockingly emotional, Three Kings begins when the Gulf War is over. Amid the partying and confusion, four Ame...More at Buy.com
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