Three Kings (*** ½) – It was only a matter of time until we saw a full-fledged movie dealing with the Gulf War. That alone makes it a true original. Sure, Courage Under Fire used the Gulf War as a setting for its action just as Three Kings does, but this latest film slyly sneaks in its own opinions about what the Gulf War was really about. I mean, after all, why were we even there?On the surface, the latest effort was David O. Russell seems like a clear-cut caper picture, kind of a Kelly’s Heroes meets The Wild Bunch, but Russell uses that plot instead as a metaphor for our involvement in Operation Desert Storm. Substitute oil for the gold and you begin to get my meaning. But don’t think is just a political statement disguised as a movie. It’s a highly entertaining, action-packed and incredibly funny. The characters don’t drip the kind of complexity you normally see in a film as highly tauted as this – but they are also metaphors delivering the inner message of the movie. George Clooney is believable as an action leader but can also deliver the script’s witticisms with the best of them. Mark Wahlberg is well, appropriately Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube is Ice Cube.But it just doesn’t matter because Three Kings is so involving, going even a step further to teach the audience about the real effect of bullets and adding a nice healing touch towards the end. The tension isn’t cranked up as much as I had hoped in the final half hour and some moments are too over-stylized for their own good but it was refreshing to see a simple good idea expanded to include so many ideas without being preachy and without scaling down the action. Don’t let this one get away.
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