A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

The Evaluation System Reviews by Title Reviews by Date

Reviews from Video Reviews of the Classics Personal Background

Title: Three Kings

Date Viewed: 10/15/99

Details:

George Clooney

Mark Wahlberg

Ice Cube

Spike Jonze

Director: David O. Russell

Score: +

The Review: What starts out as a military caper set at the end of the Gulf War soon becomes a complex tragedy of errors. The caper starts with the recovery of a map from a captured Iraqi soldier that may lead to a secret bunker where Saddam Hussein has secreted a massive amount of stolen Kuwaiti gold reserves. A trio of US soldiers (Wahlberg & Ice Cube), led by renegade Clooney, decide to make a grab for a few gold bars; they have to take along bumbling country-boy Jonze because he overheard their plans, and because he is "in the care of" Wahlberg. So they are off into the desert, AWOL, evading reporters and their own brass. When they find the bunker, things deteriorate rapidly.

Remotely, across the distance of time and space, it seems an accurate portrayal of the euphoria surrounding the end of war, coupled with the complex feelings of the non-militia Iraqi country folk when confronted by their American saviors in an ethically ambiguous position. The level of moral concern follows a symmetric parabolic arc, concave upwards, offset with the minimum about 20 to 30 minutes into the film.

Recommended.

Back to the chronological list of reviews