This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

What a terrific action flick! Caught it on Netflix and watched it just...because, I guess. I'd passed over the title several times, but this last time it seemed interesting in light of what else was available that I hadn't seen.WOW! Had I ever sold this movie short. It turned out way, way better than I'd figured.

The dumbed down version of Syriana with shoot outs explosions and one liners.

The Rotten Tomatoes summation of this movie reads: "While providing several top-notch action scenes, The Kingdom ultimately collapses under the weight of formula and muddled politics" This is the definitive proof as to why relying on Rotten Tomatoes, or any review aggregator, for that matter, will only do a disservice to you a viewer. The Kingdom is a top-notch experience. From start to finish. This is what I call an action-thriller. It's fast-paced, straight-to-the- point, and intense like hell. All I want a topical action movie to be. This is exactly what I wish a movie like Sicario was more. While I thought that movie was great, too, I found it to be tedious in some instances. This, however, is exactly my kind of movie. It is topical, it has politics in it, it has your typical moralistic values in there, too, but it's all packed in a straightforward plot that doesn't let you get bored and keeps the level of intensity going until the credits roll. Yes, this movie is over-the-top and suffers from over dramatization. However, I can't fault a movie for that when we have movies like Braveheart and The Revenant - that are beloved and highly regarded - which all are nothing but exaggerations of real events.If people think that Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the be- all and end-all of modern action thrillers, they better take a look at this rethink that statement, because this movie makes makes it look like The First Avenger.P.S. Peter Berg should definitely direct an adaptation of Tom Kings's Sheriff of Babylon.

As a Saudi man who has lived in the country for more than 20 years, I have to say, this has got to be the most inaccurate movie in the History of cinema. But I won't deny I had fun watching it haha :) This movie is so funny I spent the whole evening on the floor laughing with my friends. No wonder Saudi's image is distorted in the West, it's because they get their information about different cultures from prejudiced sourced like this. How can something as diverse and ancient as the culture of Saudi Arabia be narrowed down into one word "terrorism" is beyond my comprehension. I don't want to get too political with my review, but I'll just point out one thing: Saudi Arabia is 100 times safer then the safest US state, I know because I have lived in both countries. The scene where the guy goes to Suwaidi district and faces a bazooka was painfully stupid, in reality you may face a generous Saudi Bedouin who will greet you to come into his house and serve you some dates, qahwa (Arabic coffee), and might even prepare a feast for you even if he doesn't know who you are. This is the true Saudi Arabia that's not shown in movies or elsewhere. There was also another scene that really bothered me when the Col. Al Ghazi offered the woman to sleep in the bathroom, WOW really? Saudis are probably the most fanatic people in the world when it comes to respecting women and respecting families,nothing comes CLOSE to the amount of reverence and protection of the family bond than it is in Saudi Arabia. Remember that the middle east is the region where the whole concept of family and marriage formed way back thousands of years ago. Even the word "hormah" in Arabic that is used referring to women is derived from the Arabic word "Ihtiram" which literally means respect. I'm pretty sure all of this is a big shock to the West who've been told all along that Arabia is a land where women are 'mistreated' and 'opressed', not knowing that the hijab has been around in Arabia even before Islam. In any case, our country isn't perfect and we do face some challenges and a form of clash between our values and modern requisites due to the oil boom. But it will not help the Saudi people or humanity as a whole by misinforming people day and night about different cultures and spreading fear, hate and Xenophobia. Something a movie like "The Kingdom" does pretty well.