First of all, let’s get the plot summary out of the way. After a particularly devastating terrorist attack on a Western housing compound in Saudi Arabia, the FBI sends a team of investigators to find out what happened. Once there, they soon discover that a lot goes on behind the scenes within the kingdom as they are hampered at every turn in their investigation.

OK, so that’s the boilerplate. The “broader theme” in the movie is the inevitable “us and them” comparisons, leading ultimately to the “I guess we’re all the same after all” as the film proceeds. At the same time, it also wants to be an action picture where things blow up and bad guys die. It’s a hefty challenge and although The Kingdom doesn’t completely succeed, it doesn’t fail either.

However, at times the Americans almost seem to be caricatures of real people. One character in particular, Agent Adam Leavitt (played by Jason Bateman) seems to go out of his way to be as offensive as possible while in Saudi Arabia. Despite repeated, polite, requests to modify his behavior, Leavitt continues to cuss like a sailor and berate every aspect of Saudi life as if it’s completely unreasonable. The developments with his character later in the movie came as no surprise. I get it. He’s the “ugly American,” but he’s so one dimensional as to be distracting.

Jamie Foxx does a good job as the lead investigator, Ronald Fleury. Of anyone on his team, he seems to have the firmest grasp on the social forces at work. This aids him and the team greatly as they try to solve the crime. Of course, he’s the leader, so he’d naturally have all those things, right?

So we’re left with a fish-out-of-water meets East vs. West meets Crime Drama meets Action Flick. That’s a lot of meeting. It’s also the reason why The Kingdom wasn’t a great movie. Had they tackled one or two of those, it could have been great. As it is, too many elements compete for dominance in the viewer’s mind.

I recommend seeing it, but I’m glad I got it through Netflix.

-K

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a good, serious, monster movie. Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong was pretty good, but it was still King Kong. I never got into Eight-Legged Freaks, or the new Godzilla. I just constantly felt like I’d been there and done that.

So when I learned J.J. Abrams new movie, Cloverfield, was a “monster attacks New York” movie, I wasn’t really excited about going to see it. However, I quickly learned this movie would have a new twist that peaked my interest. (I debated with myself about the “spoiler” aspect of this next part, but since it’s on the movie’s website, I don’t think it really qualifies.)

Rather than being the traditional monster movie, Cloverfield is actually a movie about five friends who try to survive and escape Manhattan the evening a monster attacks the city. This is good. For the first time we’re going to tell the story of people who aren’t directly involved with combating the monster. They’re just like you or me. With very little information and a few frightening encounters, they attempt to try and stay alive among the chaos. The best part is that the viewer only has as much information as the main characters. It’s a very limited perspective, but one that highlights and emphasizes the horror of the encounter.

My only caveat is for people who get motion sickness. The camera shakes like a son of a bitch. The entire movie is shot as if it’s a Hi-8 camera held by one of the main characters as he documents the group’s escapades. It can get to you if you’re not careful.

I enjoyed it. I really did. It brought a refreshing viewpoint to a tired, worn-out subgenre. If anyone likes to see fictional conventions turned on their heads to tell a new story, then you ought to not miss this. Once you see it, be sure to scout around for the “viral marketing” out on the Internet. Some of it isn’t bad at all.

-K

Oh where do we begin? Black Sheep is a movie about genetic experiments, environmental do-gooders, feuding brothers and, of course, killer sheep.

Yes, you read that right. Killer sheep.

A horror/comedy film, Black Sheep does for “mutant animal” movies what Tremors did for “giant monster” movies. Ostensibly the story of a brother who returns to the family farm, only to discover his older brother has been conducting genetic experiments upon the flock of sheep, the film does a reasonable job of lampooning not only business interests who would wreck the environment for a buck, but also the supposed “good guys” portrayed by a couple of eco-terrorists.

At no point does the film take itself seriously, and consequently even the more horrific elements wind up being funny. Funny even beyond the idea of sheep being violent, which is the true success of the film. A true “B” movie, Black Sheep is a great flick to watch while having a bunch of friends over, drinking beer and yelling back at the screen, ala Rocky Horror. The only thing missing, which makes the comparison to Tremors a bit of a stretch, is the lack of quotable dialogue. If it had that, the movie would comedy gold. However, that’s its only weak spot.

-K

What do you get when you combine a centuries-old fairy tale, a lot of pop culture references and a $15 million dollar budget? A very poor copy of the Shrek films.

Hoodwinked is a re-telling of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Re-framed, the story is one of a police investigation into the events that occurred at Grandma’s house and told through the viewpoints of four characters: Red, the Wolf, the axe-wielding Hunter and Grandma herself. Of course, each version of the story contains elements that are unique to each character’s point-of-view and it naturally turns out the actual story is a blend of everyone’s perceptions.

The story itself isn’t bad, although some elements are just plain silly. The film uses non-linear storytelling and unreliable narration to drive the plot, which makes it interesting. Many of the characters aren’t who they seem and as each point-of-view is revealed, how it affects the previous version can be humorous. However, for the most part, they are predictable, which takes away from the complicated structure.

The characters themselves are actually pretty bland, with the exception of Twitchy, the squirrel photgrapher. Hyperactive is an understatement for him, but even the initial funny is worn away as the gag is repeated over and over and over again.

The worst part of the movie, however, is the animation. The production values are horribly low, which isn’t damning in itself (just look at South Park for example), but even the motion of characters isn’t well done. Several scenes have points where the character’s motion just defy even cartoon physics (like Red’s fall about a third through the movie). I’ve read opinions from people who dismiss the animation in favor of the story and I tend to agree that story should be the strongest element in film, but when your story isn’t strong, some good animation could at least make the film more watchable.

In all, neither Dreamworks or Pixar need fear anything from Blue Yonder films. (Indeed Pixar only needs to fear that making quality films will be lost on audiences woefully unprepared for an original story, instead of ripping off a thousand pop culture references like Shrek does.) Hoodwinked apparently made enough money to define the film as a “success” and a sequel is in the works, but unless they substantially improve in both their writing and art, I think I’m going to pass.

-K

I have always loved history. When I was in college, I concentrated on medieval history more than any other topic, even World War II. So when I first saw the trailer for Kingdom of Heaven, I was pretty excited. Ridley Scott, who had done such a wonderful job on Gladiator was going to do a film about the Crusades. Surely this was going to be a great ride.

Well, the first reviews came out and panned it. Having limited time, resources and patience, I tend to give credit to overwhelming reviews so far as spending my time and money to see a movie in the theater. So I resolved to see it on DVD when it was released, and I did over the weekend.

It used to be that authors wouldn’t depict an actual sex scene in a novel, or story. Sex happened in between the paragraphs. The same was true in film. Actual sex was in between the fade-out when the characters kissed and the fade-in when they were eating breakfast the next morning, or whatever. Those days are long gone, but Ridley Scott was obviously moved by the power of suggestion because he’s crafted the first movie in decades where entire battles happen in between thefade-out and fade-in.

I’m not kidding. In what should be a huge scene, where Baldwin I is leading the Christian army to confront Saladin and the Muslims, you are treated to a panoramic shot of the two armies as they approach each other. Fade out. Fade in. The scene has changed. Bodies are everywhere, as are the smoke and cries of the wounded. What would have been a spectacular scene is completely left to your imagination. The result is not a homage to the power of suggestion. It just looks cheap.

And that’s what’s wrong with the film. It’s neither an action film, a character study, nor an exploration of religious conflict. It wants to be all three things: epic battles, differing viewpoints on religion and it’s ability to co-exist with other faiths, and studies of indivdual men and how they view things. Because it tries to be all of this, it is none. Even the “love subplot” is weak. Orlando Bloom’s character is wooden and one-dimensional. Jeremy Irons and Liam Neeson give good performances and Edward Norton is probably the best, managing to invoke emotion despite the fact his face is covered by a mask the entire time. There’s some fun to be had spotting people from other films (David Thewlis from Dragonheart and Harry Potter; Kevin McKidd from Rome.), but other than that there’s very little to enjoy.

Even the climatic battle where the Saracens siege Jerusalem inspired Morgan to comment, “Look, it’s like in the Two Towers game. You have to run Legolas back and forth along the wall to keep the Orcs off at Helm’s Deep.”

You get the picture. For all its promise Kingdom of Heaven turns out to be a 135 minute snorefest. Watch it if you want, but this was a big disappointment.