The Kingdom

I watched The Kingdom on Monday and I came out with a headache.

Not that the storyline was very complicated that I had hard time understanding it, but because of the jerky and panning camerawork ala The Blair Witch Project.

I had dinner before that and somehow it made me feel worse. My full stomach coupled by the "gritty" feel intended by the director made me feel nauseous during the second half of the movie.

The plot, taken from IMDB:
Americans living and working in a secure American compound in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are out enjoying themselves playing baseball when suddenly terrorists breach the compound and begin shooting everybody in sight. The terrorists succeed in their mission, killing hundreds of Americans, including men, women, children, and an FBI special agent. A team of FBI counter-terrorism agents (led by Jamie Foxx) want to go to Saudi Arabia and investigate the attack, but the U.S. State Department says no, but with a little pressure, they end up going anyway. Once in Saudi Arabia they find themselves isolated and unable to investigate the crime scene by orders from Saudi officials. The governmental bureaucracy and cultural differences cause conflict between both of them. The Saudi troops know that the FBI agents are targets of the terrorists, and they dont want another disaster on their hands. However, when the American agents become friends with a Saudi police officer, they begin to work together to bring the terrorists to justice.

It was quite a good movie, fast paced, with a lot of shooting and explosions. It is also very relevant post September 11. This is the second movie shown here in Singapore about current affairs of the world as a result of terrorism. The first movie was Rendition.

I would have definitely enjoyed it more if not for the camerawork. The same reason I don't enjoy First Person Shooter games and avoid them like the plague. I prefer to be looking down at my character rather then from them.

Oooh, it's already Sunday and The Golden Compass beckons.

My company might have a movie outing to watch Golden Compass after our annual Christmas dinner and I surely don't mind watching again.

And judging from the reviews thus far, I think I am right!