The Kingdom (2007)

I wasn't expecting much from The Kingdom, mostly because I have really disliked the so-called "ripped from the headlines" movies that have a penchant for overbearing political grandstanding. However The Kingdom avoids the politics of the current war in Iraq despite taking terrorism as its primary subject. Kudos to the screenwriters for this one, because I felt I could enjoy the movie without being preached to.

The movie stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, and Chris Cooper. My wife and I were pretty excited to see Garner as a butt-kicking government agent again, since it has been a few years since Alias has been off the air. The film begins with a horrific suicide bombing in an American housing complex in Saudi Arabia. The plot is pretty straight forward, an FBI team muscles its way through the normal channels of diplomacy in order to investigate. As they start to piece together the clues that point them to the terrorist cell behind the plot, things are increasingly more dangerous and culminate in an edge-of-your-seat chase/fight sequence in a terrorist controlled neighborhood. The drama was quite good, and the action was top notch. There were scenes reminiscent of A Mighty Heart and Clear and Present Danger - two movies that I loved. Overall this is probably the best action flick of 2007 that I have seen so far.