THREE KINGS
After the war has ended, the U.S. Army discovers a secret map showing
the location of tons of stolen Kuwaiti goods, including warehouses full
of gold bullion. This info falls into the hands of Commander Archie Gates
(George Clooney), who is just a few weeks away from retirement. Instead
of informing his superiors of the find, and retiring with honor and free
of danger, he decides to go on an illegal treasure hunt in the Iraqi desert,
taking along Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) and Chief Elgin (Ice Cube), and
also Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze) as driver of the getaway Hum-V. Leaving behind
the reporter he was supposed to be escorting (Nora Dunn), Gates leads his
gang into Iraqi-held territory, running into a detatchment of Saddam's Republican
Guard, who are holding some Iraqi rebels prisoner.
Because the Iraqi civilians are only doing what George Bush told them
to do (namely, rebel against Saddam), and because the U.S. has since withdrawn
its support, leaving them dangling in the breeze, and because the people
are being tortured and summarily executed by the Iraqi soldiers, our guys
decide to break the cease-fire agreement and help them. They engage the
soldiers in a minor skirmish, kill several of them, and move on with the
rebels in tow. They then make a deal that in return for vehicles and help
with the gold, they will escort them to the Iranian border. But soon Barlow
is taken prisoner, and the civilian rebels are fighting alongside the Gates
gang, trying to spring him while lugging around all those huge duffelbags
full of ingots. And we all know how hard it is to walk in the sand, even
if you're not carrying something heavy.
Clooney, Cube, Wahlberg, and Jonze all do an adequate job with their roles, surprisingly, as does Cliff Curtis as Amir Abdulah, the leader of the rebels. Dunn also shows depth as the reporter. The cinema by Newton Thomas Sigel is perhaps the most interesting quality; it blends nice desert scenery with unconventional angles and quasi-surrealism. But there's still the issue of credibility. When the conflict in the Persian Gulf is symbolized by Ice Cube throwing a bomb-fitted Nerf football at a helicopter, that's where I stop believing. It's not a bad film from a technical standpoint. I guess I just don't approve of the concept. ***½