A major problem facing The Kingdom is that the film it believes it is - a tense, thoughtful action thriller with a solid cast and a few relevant points to make - was released two years ago. It was called Syriana.

An FBI revenge movie about a team of American agents sent in to solve a mass murder, The Kingdom is much like it's lead characters; it wants to do the right thing, it just doesn't really know what that is. As such we recieve a number of stereotypes that double as key players. We have a determined father in the ever charismatic Jamie Foxx, a boring funny-man in Jason Bateman and a weepy, inexperienced female tag-along in Jennifer Garner sure to raise some feminist eyebrows.

The script makes even worse mistakes when addressing the film's political issues. So ham-fisted are the attempts to fit messages into the "dialogues" that viewers with any awareness of current political issues may well find themselves in a coffee shop shortly after the opening credits.

More painful than the script is the often talented Peter Berg's direction. Imitating Paul Greengrass doesn't give weight to scenes with two-dimensional characters and the overall stale taste of the tone - coasting for atleast an hour before shifting up into a glimmer of action-thriller action and thrills - requires much more recompense than the climatic battle-cry offers.

The Kingdom works neither as an action-thriller or a political-thriller. It works mostly as an example of how trying to be clever sometimes ends up making you look stupid.

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