Three Kings (1999)

A confident hybrid of M*A*S*H, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and Dr. Strangelove, Three Kings is one of the most seriously funny war movies ever made. Improving the premise of Kelly's Heroes with scathing intelligence, it explores the odd connection between war and consumerism in the age of Humvees and cellular phones. Writer-director David O. Russell's third film (after Spanking the Monkey and Flirting with Disaster), it's a no-holds-barred portrait of personal conscience in the volatile arena of politics, played out by one of the most gifted filmmakers to emerge in the 1990s.

George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze (director of Being John Malkovich) play a quartet of U.S. soldiers who, disillusioned by Operation Desert Storm, decide to steal $23 million in gold hijacked from Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's army. Getting the bullion out of an Iraqi stronghold is easy; keeping it is a potentially lethal proposition. By the end of their mercenary mission, the Americans can no longer ignore wartime atrocities (and neither can we--the film is boldly unflinching), and conscience demands their aid to Kuwaiti rebels abandoned by President George Bush's fickle wartime policy. This is serious stuff indeed, but Russell infuses Three Kings with a keen sense of the absurd, and the entire film is an exercise in breathtaking visual ingenuity. Despite a conventional ending that's mildly disappointing for such a brashly original film, Three Kings conveys the brutal madness of war while making you laugh out loud at the insanity. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Just As Good As I Remembered

I remember how much I enjoyed this movie in the theaters and had not seen it for quite ahwile so I picked up the DVD.

It was just as I remembered it - engaging and engrossing from the beginning to the end. Clooney, Wahlberg and the others all turn in solid performances. (After Boogie Nights and the performance here, it was pretty evident Mark Wahlberg was going to be very good.)

The plot, twists and turns keeps you going. Though it may be broadly similar as "Kelly's Heroes" (another great movie, just thinking of Don Rickles or Don Sutherland in that can make me laugh) it is not the same movie, nor does it try to be. If you have not seen this yet, do not watch it with any other movie or comparison in mind.

Though at times comedic, there is more to this movie than comedy and it would be difficult to try to compare it to another movie.

It is a blend of a few movies all in one and succeeds in creating its own identity. September 12, 2008

Loud shoot-em-up

Post Gulf War tale of three US soldiers who plan a heist of Kuwait gold stolen by Saddam. Quick cutting makes for quick action. The morality at the center is the meat of the movie. Clooney is pretty good, and Ice Cube is the new Jim Brown. Less overall than it could have been. Filmed in Arizona, but pretty convincing scenery. September 7, 2008

Three Abdications

My struggle with THREE KINGS is that I viewed it the first time in the mistaken belief that it was an updated version of KELLY'S HEROES. Additionally as a veteran of the first Gulf War I found very little in this movie to remind me of those first confusing weeks immediately after the cease fire.

In THREE KINGS we find a group of Desert Storm GIs, led by George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube, setting off on an unauthorized search for a cache of Iraqi gold. So far, so good. During their quest they encounter both passive Iraqi troops, easily pushed aside, and pockets of fanatical Republican Guard soldiers complete with armor. After hustling off the gold the plot gets unnecessarily confusing with this band of raiders finding themselves in the middle of a civil war between Iraqi civilians and the ruthless guard.

From this point onward the plot tumbles downhill with a member of the group captured and tortured, later rescued, only to become immediately wounded during a firefight. Clooney and his men push their way east with an ever growing entourage of Iraqi refugees only to find themselves arrested by a contingent of US forces blocking their convoy from Iran. Fortunately the presence of the press compels the Army to allow the Iraqis to pass into Iran and the renegade soldiers are treated as heroes.

Some have rated this film as the greatest war film of all time. I disagree. It is certainly not a modern KELLY'S HEROES and, though sometimes bizarre, does not have the class to be in league with CATCH 22. More annoying are the hand-held camera shots and bleached out color negative that gave the film a high contrast and blue-tinted magazine look. The bottom line is that you have to have a passable story first before you start tinkering in the film lab.



August 5, 2008

"We three kings be stealin' the gold."

It's 1991 and the Persian Gulf war is at an end. A cynical captain (played by George Clooney), two noncoms (Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg) and a nincompoop (Spike Jonze) are sent into the border zone to clean up.

Instead, they stumble across an enormous cache of gold bullion, all nicely laid out in heavy ingot bars. The gold is SUPPOSED to go straight back to Kuwait from where it was stolen, but . . .

No spoilers here, just to say this is a very entertaining and informative movie that touches on the wretchedness of war, the paranoia of not knowing who your political friends are, the weirdness of modern life (mini-spoiler -- at one point the Mark Wahlberg character, unable to radio his base, cell phones his wife to arrange for military reinforcements), and no small amount of welcome humor. Nora Dunn is particularly good in a tragi-comic role as a cable-news reporter unable to see beyond the lens of her next report.

This movie is significantly less preachy than SYRIANA or MICHAEL CLAYTON but it does make its points very well. Unless you are totally turned off by the idea of George Clooney in a war movie, I think you'll like THREE KINGS.

I should point out that this film premiered in 1999 and the DVD dates from 2000. Thus, it may LOOK as though the tail end of the Persian Gulf War as portrayed in this movie was meant to be a commentary on the current Iraqi commitment, but the film came out and was in DVD before the U.S. entered Iraq this time.

Also, as of now (6/2008), the regular DVD can be had for a very good price.

June 24, 2008

Surprisingly Good

I didn't expect much from this movie, but it turned out to be quite entertaining. It had a certain realism to it, and I like that, instead of the absurd storylines that are so frequent these days. July 6, 2007

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