Directed by David O. RussellIt’s difficult to separate the art from the artist once the violent, screaming truths are unleashed. If you know anything about director David O. Russel, you’ve undoubtedly seen his hissy “YOU FUCKING CUNT” filled fit against actor Lily Thompson on the set of “I Heart Huckabees". (And if you haven’t…well, click here). The guy he belittles his crew to the point of making them cry and actor's he's worked with in the past swear they’ll never work with him again. We should bury the jack-ass and his sun baked turd sandwiches he calls his “oeuvre” right? The problem is that his movies are so damn good. From the slyly comedic incestuous subject matter of “Spanking the Money” to his broader dark comedy “Flirting with Disaster” and finally his third film, an odd mix of political tinged drama with a little bit of stylistic action to calm the masses. It’s an odd beast, but it finds its own voice quickly and delivers its message till the end credits role.
The gulf war is over. And for most of the US army it never really started. Four soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze) find a treasure map up between a prisoner's butt cheeks and hatch a plan to steal the gold it supposedly leads too. The only problem is the people who live in the town and the fact that they’ll be killed if they don’t do anything. It’s a tossup between following the rules and getting out with all the riches in the world or breaking the law and helping out your fellow man. Tough.
Starting off as a broad stylized piece of work, the film quickly finds its own groove and splits its more dramatic bits with its broad comedy while still managing to shoe-in a bit of action (mostly composed of people jumping forward in slow motion as something explodes in the background). The camera lenses are often over-exposed to light, which makes pop-up book like cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel that is a joy to behold. The editing grabs your privates and drags you along with crazy swooping sounds in the never-ending series of camera moves and crazy non-related cut-aways to things along the lines of a characters’ wife being caught in a suburban explosion.
The cast may read like who’s-who of Hollywood stars now, but back then, this set of misfits was a hefty gamble for a 50+ Million dollar studio film. You have an untested TV star lead, an underwear model, a rapper and a music video director who are expected to emote to events like a woman being shot point blank in the head. The surprising thing here is that they all do compelling work. George Clooney is still Clooney, but a little more subdued then usual with his bag of acting ticks (“I’m squinting because I’m mad”) brought down to a bare minimum. Spike Jonze is effective as the red-neck southerner whose simpleton reactions to fantastic events are essentially the back-bone of the whole group. Ice Cube plays the same character he always plays, a smirking bad-ass that does cool things, but this time he’s Christian, even though that’s nothing more then a little window dressing. Mark Wahlberg is the clear knock-out performance of the group, proving once again that no matter how many “The Happenings” and “Four Brothers” he churns out, that kid can still FEEL IT when comes to the acting game.
Three King is grazed by the classic status dum-dum, but fails only because it feels that it needs to also be an ACTION film which makes the scenes of explosions and diving (lots of diving) a little bit out of place in the context of the story that’s being told. It makes for broad popcorn entertainment, but the director obviously cared more about the other dramatic elements and that forces the film into an uneasy allegiance with its two fighting sides. You have a great dramatic film with a bunch of EXCLAMATION points every now and then when all you really needed were commas. I probably wouldn’t like Three Kings as much if it’s over the top moments where stripped away, but it’s also the thing that hurts it the most. HIP-HIP-HURRAH for being a hypocrite!
The gulf war is over. And for most of the US army it never really started. Four soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze) find a treasure map up between a prisoner's butt cheeks and hatch a plan to steal the gold it supposedly leads too. The only problem is the people who live in the town and the fact that they’ll be killed if they don’t do anything. It’s a tossup between following the rules and getting out with all the riches in the world or breaking the law and helping out your fellow man. Tough.
Starting off as a broad stylized piece of work, the film quickly finds its own groove and splits its more dramatic bits with its broad comedy while still managing to shoe-in a bit of action (mostly composed of people jumping forward in slow motion as something explodes in the background). The camera lenses are often over-exposed to light, which makes pop-up book like cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel that is a joy to behold. The editing grabs your privates and drags you along with crazy swooping sounds in the never-ending series of camera moves and crazy non-related cut-aways to things along the lines of a characters’ wife being caught in a suburban explosion.
The cast may read like who’s-who of Hollywood stars now, but back then, this set of misfits was a hefty gamble for a 50+ Million dollar studio film. You have an untested TV star lead, an underwear model, a rapper and a music video director who are expected to emote to events like a woman being shot point blank in the head. The surprising thing here is that they all do compelling work. George Clooney is still Clooney, but a little more subdued then usual with his bag of acting ticks (“I’m squinting because I’m mad”) brought down to a bare minimum. Spike Jonze is effective as the red-neck southerner whose simpleton reactions to fantastic events are essentially the back-bone of the whole group. Ice Cube plays the same character he always plays, a smirking bad-ass that does cool things, but this time he’s Christian, even though that’s nothing more then a little window dressing. Mark Wahlberg is the clear knock-out performance of the group, proving once again that no matter how many “The Happenings” and “Four Brothers” he churns out, that kid can still FEEL IT when comes to the acting game.
Three King is grazed by the classic status dum-dum, but fails only because it feels that it needs to also be an ACTION film which makes the scenes of explosions and diving (lots of diving) a little bit out of place in the context of the story that’s being told. It makes for broad popcorn entertainment, but the director obviously cared more about the other dramatic elements and that forces the film into an uneasy allegiance with its two fighting sides. You have a great dramatic film with a bunch of EXCLAMATION points every now and then when all you really needed were commas. I probably wouldn’t like Three Kings as much if it’s over the top moments where stripped away, but it’s also the thing that hurts it the most. HIP-HIP-HURRAH for being a hypocrite!
DVD: There' a very fact-filled commentary track from the director and an even more interesting track from two of the producers. The 20 minute documentary and the 20 minutes of home video footage (By David O Russel) paint him as an excited if pushy man that really wants to get his film off the ground. The only bummer is that none of the docs deal with HOW FUCKING CRAZY HE WAS! I'd love to get my hands on some George Clooney head-butting the director footage, but that may take a little while I imagine.
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