This is one of those films that's got that sycophantic feel to it where those who love it - and there are sure to be many such kiss-ass critics - will fawn over it in a way that makes the movie sound infinitely more important than it actually is.

The thing is, the relationship between the West and the Muslim world is so horrifically fucked up that virtually anything that simplifies the whole thing down into easily digestible bits like "The Kingdom" does is immediately seized upon by the weak-minded as some kind of profound work of art when it's merely a formulaic piece of shit with a convenient piece of moralizing at the end.

And I'll just give this away because I don't care and, well, it's just not all that important or profound, but that bit of moralizing at the end of "The Kingdom" is this: the peace and ultimate satisfaction for the combatants in this conflict is to kill every last motherfucker on the other side. It makes them feel mmmm, mmmm good. Director Peter ("Friday Night Lights") Berg supposes that this ends his film with a philosophical bang, yet it's the kind of bang that Hollywood nits love to trot out as important because they're mostly undereducated self-important nits and anytime they produce something with the slightest intellectual weight, they ejaculate all over themselves.

"The Kingdom" is so titled because it takes place in Saudia Arabia, in Riyadh, to be exact, where there's a substantial U.S. presence and there's just been a terrorist bombing. This prompts an elite FBI team led by Ronald Fluery (Jamie Foxx) to head over there and try to figure out who's responsible, despite that fact that nobody wants them to go. The Saudis don't want them there because they don't like Americans and the Americans don't want them there because it might offend the Saudis. Along for the ride are Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman), Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), and Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner).

When the team gets there, they are chaperoned by Colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhorn), who's that honorable Saudi officer trying to do his job and who will inevitably grow to respect and befriend his American counterparts and likewise, they will grow to respect and befriend him and eventually, each side will think that maybe, just maybe, they could all get along.

Two things strike me as illustrative of the mediocre nature of this film. The first is the casting of Jennifer Garner, who's believability in the role is precisely the reason she's wrong for the role and anybody who says anything else is a liar. The second is the ending of the film wherein the case is solved. This all happens because of pure coincidence and like most police procedurals, had the villains not been stupid, they probably would not have been caught. Instead, they pretty much lead Fluery and his team straight to their homes.

I suppose if we all hadn't been involved in this war on terror for the last six years, "The Kingdom" might have seemed interesting.