Three Kings

David O. Russell. What are we going to do with you? Russell has had a very bipolar career. He has made numerous quirky films that range from good to great, while also being, allegedly, extremely hard to work with. Fights with Lily Tomlin! Shutting down a movie where Jessica Biel plays a good girl turned nympho!

But to get back to the point, most of Russell's films involve alot of quirky people telling some man with problems (mental illness, family, transcendentalism) what to do, then the man falling apart, then he finds love. They all have a mixture of comedy in dialogue with dramatic action sequences with little dialogue. However, Three Kings is a little different.

For starters, the story revolves around 4 male soldiers trying to steal the Kuwaiti gold that Saddam stole from them. Another difference is that Russell made Three Kings as unapologetically political as he could. Our anti-heroes's plan gets off course when they see the horrible conditions they are forced to live in under Saddam's rule. One particularly brutal sequence involves a rocket launcher blowing up a tanker of milk to feed a small town.

Thats the different, now here is the good. Russell is a master of the action sequence. Most of his are not the big action scenes of the Batman movies, but the amount of work that Russell puts into the character building, mixes with the cinematography to draw in the viewer. Three Kings is an endless run of action sequence that involve a few people, ending into a very tense situation and outsmarting their opponents. Complications always arise and Russell is particularly good at drawing contemplation out of his actors.

Three Kings still has the Russell style, due to an unlikely star performance from Spike Jonze as a hillybilly racist who didnt go to high school, but dont go telling everybody that. Jonze is funny, stupid, sincere, and shit on by most people in the film (even the Iraqi hairdresser, who totally shits on his badass haircut that Troy gave him). The other three also gives great performances, highlighted by Mark Wahlberg's torture scene. I found myself cringing without a sound other than Walhberg's cries.

Three Kings might not have the emotional core that Silver Linings Playbook had. It might not have the suspense and beauty of the fight scenes in The Fighter. But Three Kings has an exciting plot, and face/slow/fast/slow pace, and even ends with a win that involves losing all the gold. Strongly recommend for Russell fans, war fans, and Clooney fans.