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Three Kings - It’s Hard to Beat Three Kings
Starring George
Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube
Directed by David O. Russell
Warner Brothers
Rated R
It’s Hard to Beat Three Kings
by Shirley J.
Gregory
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The critics were right. Three
Kings is one of the few original adventure screenplays to come out of
Hollywood this year. It’s
thrilling and witty, and lots of great entertainment.
Three Kings skillfully walks a thin balance beam of a moral play
without preaching or political statements.
It is the story of a handful of noncom reservists at the end of the Gulf
War who discover a map to the gold Suddan Hussein stole from Kuwait during the
Iraqi occupation. Their discovery
is found out by a special forces major, George Clooney, two weeks shy of
retirement. They all decide it’s
okay to steal stolen goods, especially from Hussein, and they envision
themselves living like kings the rest of their lives.
They find the gold and acquire it easily, but these are not cold-blooded hoodlums. Their humanity gets in the way of their greed, and they find themselves in the middle of Iraq’s civil war. A hint of left wing “Monday-night quarterbacking” seeps into the film concerning Operation Desert Storm, but just enough to make us consider what the U.S. and its allies actually did accomplish there. The entertainment value isn’t impaired. The complicated plot is riveting to the end. Clooney casually and easily dominates the big screen, as usual, and gives a great performance. Wahlberg holds his own as a young husband and father who only joined the Reserves for the extra cash. Ice Cube, who is becoming quite a good actor, portrays a young man, Chief, fully confident that God has brought him through the war and will take him safely home.
Chief believes that Jesus guides his footsteps, and feels confident about entering whatever door of opportunity God opens for him. He feels that God opened the door for him to go after the gold with the others. And, when they run into trouble in pursuit of the gold, he trusts God to bring them safely out. Little did any of them realize that God wasn’t opening a door for their greed, but rather for an opportunity to perform a mission for Him – almost like the original Three Kings.
This movie rates five stars on any rating scale. The photography was phenomenal. Not only was it so real that we’re transported to Iraq, but the flashbacks and sudden camera angles augmented the excellent script, directing and acting.
You’ll laugh; you’ll be on the edge of your seat with tension; you’ll wonder how it will all work out in the end. It seems every war has it’s Hollywood movie about American soldiers going after a treasure of some sort. Three Kings, the Desert Storm version, is like nothing you’ve ever seen.