The Kingdom

I saw it at a seedy dollar theater with two good friends - one's Hindu and the other's Japanese. We left with very different opinions on what the message was. My Hindu friend was disappointed, his exact words were "Oh my god, I just gave the CIA and the army my money. This was a total 'Yeah we're gonna go over there and kick ass because we're AMERICA' propaganda."

I, on the other hand, had the very opposite reaction - It wasn't a story framed around Americans good Muslims bad fuck yeah machine guns, it was post 9/11 detective fiction. I didn't read into any jingoistic subplot, if there even was one.

The Japanezee of course didn't proffer his opinion. Inscrutible Asiatic bastard.

I wanted to bring this movie up because the opening title sequence is, on pure aesthetics, the cleverest and sharpest looking one I've seen in a long time. I really like it when movies work in credits or titles in a creative way that meshes it with the movie, see for yourself:

Pretty much what I got from The Kingdom was this: the Americans and the Muslims are striving towards the same goal. I think this because at the end it is revealed that what Jamie Foxx told Jennifer Garner was the same thing that the main terrorist told his granddaughter(son?). I do not agree with what I think the message is but still a very well done film.