Three Kings

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Summary: The first real film about 20th century warfare.
Review: Ever wonder what a bullet REALLY does to a human body? Rent older war films and you'll see getting shot as a quick "bang, you're dead" affair. Rent Three Kings, and you'll see what really happens when somebody takes a bullet. Tired of cliches like "I've been in a hundred fire-fights, Sarge."? Well none of the soldiers in Three Kings have even gotten close to a real battle. A great attempt at finding out what would happen if the soldiers in a "video game war" meet their targets. Yes, the plot borrows from a dozen films, including Kelly's Heroes. And, yes, it does drift toward the preachy. But, there are enough fresh ideas here to redeem this project. Nice effort.

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Summary: What's all the fuss about?
Review: I saw this on the big screen about 2 months ago. I disliked it then and I dislike it now. In all honesty, I felt that it tried very hard to be everything you expect from an action movie and failed. The fighting scenes were too violent for a 'comedy', which is what it seemed to be lacking. What is true about it is that it can't be catergorised for the simple fact that there's just too much going on and none of it is good enough to sustain real interest. It's a guy's film. My boyfriend loved it, I didn't, and that just about sums it up. For all you movie fans out there, your time and money would be better spent on such new masterpieces as 'The Matrix'.

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Summary: I wanted to love it
Review: I rented this and truly wanted to love it. What I got was something of a disappointing film. Now before I say ANYTHING let me tell you this. I appreciate and respect this film. I think it's infussion of humour and war horror and action and other things is superb, it works. What doesn't work is the conflict, the characters and the situations. Unless you know a great deal about the gulf war I doubt you could be transported by this movie. It simply leaves too much unexplained, and a dissatisfying taste in your mouth. REPEATED viewings will reveal it's genius, but on the first viewing, prepare to be somewhat bored. P.S. The DVD is great, it rivals the miramax Collectors Edition DVD's and The Abyss as far as extras are concerned. ATTENTION WARNER BROTHERS! Please put this much non-DVD-Rom material into the Matrix!

Rating:
Summary: Lacking
Review: If you have the ability to seperate yourself from reality for over two and a half hours then this is the movie for you. The story line a good idea, but to compare it to Kelly's Heroes....c'mon. Ice Cube, Mark Whalberg and even George Cloony can not compare to Clint Eastwood and Donald Sutherland. The idea of three guys in the Gulf War walking into one of Sadam's bunkers filled with gold and waltzing out again is a bit overboard, then they feel they have to help the refugees get to the border. Only after that do the Iraqis feel they need to be stopped. It was laughable. The movie gave me a headache, the story line was jumbled and never really made any sense. If you think you are going to see a shoot'em up action movie, your wrong, if you think you are going to see a funny twist on the gulf war, wrong, the only thing here is a weak story line compounded by an even weaker cast.

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Summary: What a cliched mess...funny, no
Review: I saw nothing of value here. Cliches are rampant, ideas and plot stolen from some pretty great films, and just where was it funny?

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Summary: I just want to Celebrate.
Review: I clearly enjoy this film, very much, the first time, i`ve seen it in the month of april. I rent it the film and a few days later, i bought it on DVD and it has a lot of good extras on it, just like The Matrix and Wizard Of Oz, both produced on Warner Bros DVD Video is Excellent. An great Widescreen Anamorphic format(2.35:1). Fine Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound. Two very different Commentary by the director and the another:the producers of the film. Deleted Scenes are include it on this DVD with optinal commentary by the director. A very good cast, beside the three leads are:Spike Jones(The Director of Being John Malkovich), Nora Dunn, Jamie Kennedy(Scream, Bowfinger), Cliff Curtis and Said Taghymaoui. Very good stylish directed by David O. Russell(Flirting With Disaster), he also writting the Screenplay but Originally John Ridley(U-Turn) wrote the Screenplay but he said that David change Word per word on his Original Screenplay only. But he only got Credit for Story and Co-Producer. Some of his style from the U-Turn, directed by Oliver Stone. Especially the film-Three Kings, had some of John Ridley style of Filming from his Original Screenplay. Still Three Kings, is one of the best surprises film of 1999. Some might think this film is a War Movie but it`s not. It`s also about hope and saving people lifes, not always thinking about yourself stealing the gold for an powerful dangerous villain. Thinking you might, got a way with it and saving people lifes, make you a better person in life and best thing, you never done in your life. Super 35. Grade:A-.

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Summary: King of the crop
Review: It's nice to see that every so often, Hollywood can produce something really special. Three Kings never really pushes its message onto you, instead letting you make your own mind up, and if you don't really care about that then you can enjoy the dark humour and funny set-pieces. Wait until you see the bullet through the body moment...a fine case of violence on screen actually sensitising you, not desensitising you! A mainstream film with independent sensibilities is quite an accomplishment. The DVD doesn't spare on the extras. The deleted scenes are short and pretty pointless, but the commentary from director Russell is engaging and quite informative. Best of all is the video journal, taking you through Russell's problems making the film which he recorded himself, running to a good fifteen or so minutes. It's a nice change from the PR stuff you usually get on these things. Warner Bros always give good films some great extras, which isn't usually the case with other studios, so it's no surprise to see the quality of this package.. Three Kings is well worth your hard-earned cash, as the more we reward films like these, the more of them will be made.

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Summary: A different kind of war movie
Review: This is the first big budget movie about the Gulf War, and it is very well done. The look and feel of this movie is very different to any other movies that i have seen. I'm not going to use a lot of big words that no one understands, which i remember seeing when the first reviews were coming out last year. This movie is just cool to watch. The addons for the dvd are quite informative and really add value to the dvd. This would be a great dvd to have in your collection.

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Summary: BEYOND KELLY'S HEROES
Review: It is difficult to add anything new to the many comments that were posted below, but here goes. To some extent, THREE KINGS resembles the plot and irreverence of KELLY'S HEROES that was released in 1970 (alluded to in Amazon.com's official Review, above). In the older war movie, American soldiers try to steal gold behind enemy lines in World War II. Don Sutherland plays a tank driving hippie kind of G.I.,preventing this film from glorifying war. However, Telly Savalas and Clint Eastwood mainly keep the action going in this gold heist behind enemy lines. Similarly, the quartet of George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze do their gold heist amid Desert Storm. But all of the action takes place within a much broader context. These four soldiers are in an unholy war and their cynicism dares to be derived from the collective dark sides of President George Bush, his opportunistically deceptive military, and the easily misled and career hungry American press corps. If this international burlesque weren't so sadly true it would be a howl. Well, this movie is a howl anyway. Perhaps most refreshing is that the conquered Arabs are not the usual worn out cliches of more "classical" action movies and comedies taking place in the Middle East. Rather, the so-called primitive "ragheads" ["don't call them sand niggers! .." growls a high ranking black American Army officer, scolding a confused white Private] are far better informed than their hapless conquerors. Yet the viewer CAN have a good time watching this movie because the writing, acting and directing are so well done. See it!

Rating:
Summary: Flawed DVD? No Center Channel in 5.1
Review: I thought the movie was so-so, maybe worth renting but not worth buying..however, I just could not get a center channel on the Dolby Surround 5.1. Did anyone else have that problem? I had to watch the movie in regular stereo w/o effects..maybe that made me enjoy it less considering the potential for surround sound in a war movie taking you live to the battle field!