the kingdom

Saw "The Kingdom" the other day. It's directed by Peter Berg who also directed "Friday Night Lights" which I really enjoyed. I like Peter Berg the actor and I now think I like Peter Berg the director. FNL kind of blew me away because it was so well shot and well directed. "The Kingdom" ends up being a merely okay movie, but the filmmaking is still great. What holds it back is the script and subject matter. It's like they were trying to walk a fine line between shoot 'em up action movie and important Iraq message movie. It ends up falling flat on both accounts. Not "total failure" flat, but just "eh" flat. I will say that somehow Berg manages to start the action-packed finale 30 minutes before the movie ends and maintain tension and intensity over that long period of time. Pretty impressive.

On a side note, "Friday Night Lights" standout Tim McGraw makes another appearance and, damn, I've got to say, he may be a country singer but this guy is an amazing actor. I wish he'd do it more.