Coming up on Memorial Day in a week or so, so revisiting some greats representing the front. Some people actually give me weird looks (especially through the laptop) whenever I mention that I consider THREE KINGS as a sorta companion piece to MASH. True, theyre very different movies representing very different wars, but in a lot of ways, THREE KINGS follows that same kind of disdain toward war of any kind, and especially uses a lot of humor to that intent (this flavor is especially used well in the opening, which is especially poignant, following a kind of cease-fire boredom that ends with an Iraqi soldier being shot, while the US soldier that fired is completely confused on whether or not theyre suppose to fire or even if the Iraqi was a threat). However, unlike MASH, this film lowers its ambition to tell a straight-forward story of three soldier who find a map leading to the Kuwait treasure Saddam Hussein has hidden. Still, the movie does a great job at balancing the range between action and drama, and especially is well timed when it chooses to go back into comedy. While he had many verbal brawls with the director, George Clooney gaves a good performance, as does Mark Wahlberg (while Ive never been a big fan of Wahlberg in dramas or thrillers, the guy does have great comic timing, as shown here). Spike Jonze plays the stereotypical redneck trailblazer, all too happy to shoot something or someone (amazing to believe this is the same guy who directed such great movies like ADAPTATION and the recent classic HER). The only one that really ends up being a little thankless is Ice Cube. The guys great, but it just feels like he really didnt get anything interesting much to do. Nora Dunn is also fun as the overly ambitious media reporter who gets on everyones nerves. I laugh whenever she shows up on screen. This is honestly one of my favorite comedies of the past decade, and its definitely one of David O. Russells best made and developed films (before he went the touchy Oscar bait route).
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 14:32:42 +0000
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