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Three Kings

Three Kings

List Price: $14.97
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spectacular,riveting
Review: this movie had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to the end. I would surely see this one over and over again. Action packed and funny. Pure excitement!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I liked it!
Review: This film has got it all...

A great cast, headed by Mr Clooney, Mr Wahlberg and Mr Cube...

A very different storyline with heart ~ not all US army men opportunist ~ they reallu care for the oppressed.

What I liked about this film was it's direction. It was easy to follow and kept a little back so you couldn't forsee it's conclusion.

Great all round performances and a cool soundtrack to boot...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Who knew Desert Storm was so much fun?
Review: I've heard Three Kings referred to as a "war movie." Well, it's set in a war (after one, anyway), but really, it's more of an action comedy. And it succeeds marvelously at both. Combining its own unique style of action, an offbeat, original sense of humor, a fact-based, compelling storyline, great characterization, and some really crazy-cool camera work, Three Kings proves to be one of the best movies of '99 (right up there with The Matrix, if you ask me). The DVD's great; I own it. At least give this one a rent; it's a lot of fun as well as a great film.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Comedy combined with grusome wounds just doesn't work
Review: Starring George Clooney, Ice Cube and Mark Wahlberg, this is the story of four soldiers who, in the aftermath of the Gulf War, try to steal the gold bullion that supposedly was stolen from Kuwait by Iraq.

Although the cinematography was interesting (washed out desert scenes, what a bullet looks like inside of a body, silhouetted figures in the desert), the story line was confused and the attempt at comedy mixed in with gruesome wounds just didn't work. It also tried to hard to be preachy about the plight of the rebels who the U.S. first supported and then abandoned.

George Clooney's performance as the womanizing leader was wooden and lacked the subtlety and range that he had exhibited in the TV series ER. Ice Cube's role as a soldier-preacher didn't demand anything more than him just being there. And Mark Walhberg had plenty of chance to show off his body. But why do this in a torture scene that embarrassingly tried to humanize the torturer?

The 115 minutes of this unfocussed story was much too long and I found myself giggling at all the wrong spots and looking at my watch every fifteen minutes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Off-beat/Quirky/Action-packed/and suprisingly touching
Review: This is a movie that has it all. Great cinematography, Great writing, and a great cast that really has its act together. This movie was funny, Spike Jonze in particular is hilarious as the oblivious, ignorant, soldier. The effects and pictuesque desert of Arizona(where the movie was shot) are great. This movie is just plain great, and also suprisingly touching at the end, the dialogue is witty and well crafted that you don't even realize the attachment you have to the charachters. Go out and buy this!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I loved it!
Review: Hey i was feelin this movie.I mean when you get george clooney ,Ice Cube (friday,Next friday,Boyz In The Hood) and a couple other rednecks in the same desert, something cool has to happen.This movie was so full of action, but didnt end up like some hoky "Hey im a big muscular guy with a revolver so i can kill 999999 people in under 3 seconds with only one scratch on my left arm"sort of thing.People die, people get tortured,theres drama, and hey, the acting is pretty darn good.this is the best action movie ive seen in a while.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Visually interesting, but emotionally vapid...
Review: "Three Kings" is one of the most visually impressive and unique films I've seen in recent years. Unfortunately, the characters and the script don't measure up, leaving the film a visual masterpiece but an emotional mystery.

Director David O. Russell's camera veers, sways and swings hypnotically; the landscape is washed out, monochromatic and almost mind-bending (the result of special film stock); we see pictures of human innards being pierced by a bullet as a voice-over describes the dangers of septic infection; a shoot-out is filmed from the point of view of bullets; and on and on.

The story unfolds in the aftermath of the Gulf War; burnout Special Forces Major Archie Gates (a one-note George Clooney) figures out from a reporter that the Iraqis have stashed Kuwaiti gold in a nearby village, and that there is a map showing the location of the village.

The map, as it turns out, has been retrieved from an Iraqi soldier's...ahem...posterior by two grunts: straight arrow Sergeant Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) and redneck Beavis wannabe Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze); later, Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) joins Barlow and Vig. Gates tracks the three down, and they devise a plan to retrieve the gold (though we have no idea how they plan to smuggle it back to the states).

Eventually, the foursome ends up in the Iraqi village where the gold is stashed, but the natives mistakenly think that this is their chance to rise up (as President George Bush had exhorted them to do) to fight Saddam, whose forces occupy the village. Eventually, Gates decides to help the villagers out, and the Americans get caught up in a mini-rebellion.

Frankly, no amount of innovative camera work or visuals can hide the fact that the plot to this movie makes absolutely no sense, and the characters (especially Gates, who inexplicably turns from greedy carpetbagger to heroic liberator) do things that make no sense.

"Three Kings" has a sly, hip tone that includes numerous allusions to American pop culture (including Eddie Murphy's "My Girl Wants To Party All The Time") and consumerism that the Iraqis are too backwards to really relate to (in one scene, an Iraqi soldier fleeing a bunker risks his life to smuggle out American bluejeans). But, perhaps honestly, Russell gives us no real reasons to admire the Americans either; for all their talk (and Bush's talk) about helping liberate Iraq, they're in it for the money.

And that one-dimensional sort of attitude would seem to be consistent with Russell's aims with this film: he is in it to show us some very cool and hypnotic direction, but fills the film with patently uninteresting people.

In the end, "Three Kings" is a mixed bag, but it's worth seeing for the excellent visuals alone. The DVD is also excellent, and has some very cool extra features that make it a worthy buy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth checking out
Review: Over-all this movie wasn't the greatest...I originally rented it because of Ice Cube - I've liked a lot of his films in the past. I think it captured the feel of the Gulf War (the media blitz, the frat party mentality of the soliders once the war was over). I also respected the way the arab people were portrayed - stuck in the middle between Americans who want to help and their own pro-Sadaam countrymen. I thought it dragged a little...I started paying bills around the time Mark Wahlberg was getting resuced. But it is worth a view if you have the time. I also like the extras that the DVD offered... a lot more interesting - in depth - then other releases. Besides the DVD quality - this is the reason why DVD is great.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best movie to come out of hollywood in many many years
Review: Finally there is a movie that lets us see the depth of the arab people, as well as showing the horrible conditions that America has allowed in Iraq... not to mention a unique style of cinematography and a superb mix of humor and drama. As I started watching this movie, I expected the movie to be one filled with stereotypical images of the middle east. I also was under the impression that George Clooney couldn't act. However, I was proved wrong on both accounts. The acting was much better than I expected. The message (which, from reading some other people's reviews, many people missed completely) was pertinent, moving, and inspiring. This is also one of the few movies I've seen that comes even close to accurately portraying the situation in Iraq and that atrocities that the US is allowing to happen to innocent Iraqi citizens. Overall, this movie has more meat that 99% of all other movies out now, and is worth watching if only for its comic moments. Okay, you can stop reading this review now. Go watch the movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: David O. Russel's directorial debut a winner
Review: Set in Iraq at the conclusion of the Gulf War, Three Kings is a brilliant whirl of a movie, taking you on an emotional roller coaster. It works on many different levels. As an action film, a docu-drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.

As the war ends a document is discovered on an Iraqi prisoner (in a place where the sun don't shine!) and it is soon revealed that it shows the location of an Iraqi bunker believed to hold millions of dollars worth of stolen Kuwaiti bullion. Not letting the brass know about this rather important peice of information, four soldiers begin a quest to find it and enrich themselves.

The movie stars George Clooney as soon-to-be retired Major Archie Gates. He is very effective in this macho role of a man who begins this adventure motivated by greed, and ends it wanting to help the Iraqi refugees. There are also very solid performances from Ice Cube (as good an actor as he is a rapper), Mark Wahlberg (a much better actor than a rapper), and Spike Jonz (showing multiple talents in 1999 - he directed another good film, Being John Malkovich). The best performance may be from Nora Dunn, in a supporting role, as a reporter trying to get the inside track on a good story but running into obstacles provided by the U.S. military, both intentional and unintentional.

There are things in this movie we have not seen before. There is an enemy torturer who has a story to tell moving enough for you to feel sympathy for an otherwise inhuman character. We dont' just get bleeding bullet wounds, but the effect they have on the human body, FROM THE INSIDE!

The action is intense, ironic, and fresh. This is not the same old shooting sequences, i.e. I hide behind a steel barrel (where these are all at, I would like to know), you hide behind a wall and bullets richocet. There are exploding footballs and a confusion on who the enemy actually is. There is an excellent sequence in a gunfight where everything is in slow motion. Also, in a terrificly ironic scene Spike Jonz character rides into battle in an Infiniti Convertible, with an Iraqi rebel who does not speak English, while listening to Chicago's "Baby, Please Don't Go" on the CD player. This type of irony is not just used by Russel for humor's sake, however. It simply helps point out the absurdity that the situation dictated.

Within Three Kings I laughed, I watched with white knuckles, and I felt moved to tears at the end as seemingly everything started to go wrong. The conclusion reaches just the right note without the "Final Shootout" so many action movies fall victim to. If you can experience those range of emotions, enjoy yourself, see something new, and watch great directing and very good acting, how can it not be 5 stars?


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