"Don't fear my child. We're going to kill them all."
Peter Berg's movie is not too complicated (the director is almost more known as an actor: small thing, but he played one of the films of András Szirtes' in 1989!). It's surfing on the waves of contemporary – American – issues. Of course I'm talking about the oil and terrorism.
The film depicts an investigation after a massive terrorist attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the place "where tradition and modernity is in a violent coalition." That's all from the side of the story. The essence of the movie is hidden in the perfectionist mixture of style and action. It's about entertaining, not to give some poetical or wise answers to the political, economical and cultural problems in the background. You got what you expect. The noise of explosions, the pictures of car stunts, blood and cry covers the real questions. We're just scratching the problems' surface, but I have to say we shouldn't expect more from this genre. It's impossible to expose the situation within 100 minutes. So please don't come up with a critic about the shallowness of the film (the oversimplified negotiation between Jamie Foxx and the Saudi ambassador is ridiculous). It is, but it is the best what it can do. And it does pretty well.
A pro pos compression: the first 4 (!) minutes of the film tells the history of America and Saudi Arabia defined by their common denomination, the oil. 'Oil for protection', 'oil embargo' and who knows what else depicts the shaky relation of the two countries. The historical roller coaster just like some mind mapping starts in 1932 and lasts until the present days. The story's "high point" delivered by Osama Bin Laden evoked perfectly: an airplane is heading against two high graphs, one refers to the strongest oil producer country (SA), the other stands for the biggest oil costumer (USA).
As I said nothing special, but what else you need on a snowy Sunday evening? It seems blaspheme to give here 7 after Kar Wai's 5 points, but what can I do? Every film valuated by its own genre.
Brain off / push play: and BOOM!
7/10
Peter Berg's movie is not too complicated (the director is almost more known as an actor: small thing, but he played one of the films of András Szirtes' in 1989!). It's surfing on the waves of contemporary – American – issues. Of course I'm talking about the oil and terrorism.
The film depicts an investigation after a massive terrorist attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the place "where tradition and modernity is in a violent coalition." That's all from the side of the story. The essence of the movie is hidden in the perfectionist mixture of style and action. It's about entertaining, not to give some poetical or wise answers to the political, economical and cultural problems in the background. You got what you expect. The noise of explosions, the pictures of car stunts, blood and cry covers the real questions. We're just scratching the problems' surface, but I have to say we shouldn't expect more from this genre. It's impossible to expose the situation within 100 minutes. So please don't come up with a critic about the shallowness of the film (the oversimplified negotiation between Jamie Foxx and the Saudi ambassador is ridiculous). It is, but it is the best what it can do. And it does pretty well.
A pro pos compression: the first 4 (!) minutes of the film tells the history of America and Saudi Arabia defined by their common denomination, the oil. 'Oil for protection', 'oil embargo' and who knows what else depicts the shaky relation of the two countries. The historical roller coaster just like some mind mapping starts in 1932 and lasts until the present days. The story's "high point" delivered by Osama Bin Laden evoked perfectly: an airplane is heading against two high graphs, one refers to the strongest oil producer country (SA), the other stands for the biggest oil costumer (USA).
As I said nothing special, but what else you need on a snowy Sunday evening? It seems blaspheme to give here 7 after Kar Wai's 5 points, but what can I do? Every film valuated by its own genre.
Brain off / push play: and BOOM!
7/10
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