The Kingdom
Universal Pictures | Release Date: September 28, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
12
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Berg doesn't let up on the tension, even when the action is bloodless. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'Hara
Not quite as smart as it wants to be, and a better action movie than it is a political thriller, this is still a heart-pounding drama. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Overall, the film is smart and engaging, and if it plays a little on our fears of the next big terrorist attack, it does so without feeling exploitative. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Matthew Michael Carnahan's caffeinated script isn't much concerned with balance, but it gets some anyway, from the resonant images of culture clash that Berg catches on the fly and a remarkable performance from Ashraf Barhom. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Director Peter Berg and first-time writer Matthew Michael Carnahan do a smooth, efficient job of storytelling most of the way. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Though its violence is searing and brutal, the film, about four FBI agents investigating a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, shows a conscience and a brain, and if it explains things a bit simplistically at times, so much the better. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Foxx is magnetic in the lead, and the subplot in which he bonds with his Saudi police liaison (Ashraf Barhom, giving the movie's best performance) is touching. Read full review
70
VarietyJohn Anderson
A realist thriller that mixes crowd-pleasing mayhem with provocative politics. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A timely--if tepid--fantasy of American vengeance on the Qutbian extremists of Saudi Arabia. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Sensationally directed by Peter Berg, it’s a combination forensics detective movie (car bomb blows up secure American compound in Saudi Arabia--who dunnit and how can we stop him from doing it again?) and red-meat waste-the-terrorists action picture. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
As a genre movie, The Kingdom delivers atmosphere, heroic American derring-do and some decent thrills, though director Peter Berg's approximation of a jerky documentary style suffers from its proximity to the more textured "Bourne Ultimatum." Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The Kingdom is distasteful in several obvious and irrefutable ways: For one thing, the idea of setting an action-thriller against terrorist activity that's all too close to real-life events is simply opportunistic and creepy. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The result is a slick, brutishly effective genre movie: “Syriana” for dummies. Which is not entirely a put-down. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Corliss
Director Peter Berg cannily hypes the tension and the sentiment in the only one of the current Middle East political movies designed to appeal to the action crowd. Hard truths are absorbed while stuff blows up. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The filmmakers's attempts to balance out the gung-ho shoot-'em-ups with an overlay of "fairness" are rudimentary. The movie works us into a frenzy of righteous revenge, it makes us cheer each kill by the FBI warriors, and then it tells us that this violence only breeds more violence. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Wants to be both a hot-button, ripped-from-the-headlines statement movie and a crowd-pleasing, rip-roaring action thriller. It ends up meeting each goal about halfway. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Director Peter Berg's frenetic style heightens tension and a sense of disorientation. But some will find its chaotic quality dizzying and off-putting. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The movie ends on a plaintive can’t-we-all-get-along note, but at heart it’s a Charles Bronson flick. It mashes the revenge button the real world won’t let us push. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
The Kingdom has a heart and a viewpoint. It’s a thrill ride with a lingering thought or two in its wake. But the explosions, breakneck chases, daredevil escapes and predictability about which side will be victorious remain its foremost mission. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Berg has an excellent eye for violent extravaganza and the action - especially a 10-15 minute set piece midway through - is as cleansing as a high colonic. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Ultimately, this jingo-bingo action thriller squarely hits its target, then delivers a delayed-action message contrary to everything that has preceded it. Berg heroizes the plucky Americans, but in the closing scenes of his ripping action flick, sucker-punches them. It's as if this populist Syriana frags itself. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Peter Berg's fast-talking and unnecessarily complicated tale of Middle East terrorism is more smoke and mirrors than meat. It may come on like Syriana, but it boils down to little more than a diverting episode of "CSI: Riyadh." Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterStephen Farber
Berg's movie is no more than an action movie with an exotic backdrop. That would be fine, if only the movie were more exciting. It succeeds neither as a pointed political commentary nor as a taut thriller. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
A thumper of a movie, full of furious souls. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
THE Kingdom has some power but not enough sense. A ripped-from-today's-headlines thriller, it wants us to feel as if we're watching something relevant when what's really going on is a slick excuse for efficient mayhem that's not half as smart as it would like to be. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
If the jingoism that permeates the latter half of The Kingdom does not sufficiently sour the experience of watching it, then the film's closing sentiments about the eternality of vengeance will surely do the trick. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The Kingdom is essentially "C.S.I.: Riyadh," starring Jamie Foxx in yet another movie his Oscar statue will watch with shame. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The heroes of Peter Berg's gung-ho retribution tale are fighting the terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them here, but his film is indulging in a queasy brand of escapism. Winning imaginary wars isn't the same as winning real ones, but The Kingdom nonetheless smells like victory. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The Kingdom is a barely coherent compendium of Middle East fantasies, fears and doubts. Read full review
50
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
“Syriana's” dumber, louder cousin. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The Kingdom comes down to a police procedural, and one whose procedures prove none too interesting. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The opening is spectacular, but the rest is fairly routine. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
One electrifying performance becomes the only saving grace of The Kingdom, a goofy action movie that tries to marry the blitzkrieg entertainment of "Rambo" to the cultural consciousness of "Syriana." Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
So shameless is The Kingdom, ignoring consequence and treating its audience like cash-dispensing machines with buttons to be pushed rather than thinking individuals willing to consider the reality of America's entanglement with the Middle East. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
The opening montage raises expectations of a serious, politically incisive depiction of the region. What we actually get is an offensively pandering, Bruckheimer-esque riff on the real-life Khobar Towers bombing of 1996, a Saudi Hezbollah attack that killed 19 Americans. Read full review
25
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Its climactic highway shootout, and much else in the picture, is rendered in the best Paul Greengrass manner that Hollywood money can buy. But where Greengrass pictures aim to keep one on the edge of one's seat throughout, the tension here, such as it is, is designed to stoke audience bloodlust. If that's your kind of thing, The Kingdom certainly satisfies. Read full review
10
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
At its core this is just another piece of big-studio nothingness. The characters are so underwritten they barely qualify as types, and the movie is badly paced, bookended by high-ordnance action sequences but painfully static in the middle. Read full review
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