Director:  David O. Russell		Released:  October 1999
Writer:  David O. Russell, John Ridley		MPAA Rating:  R
Players:  George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube		Running time:  114 minutes

How to classify Three Kings?  Is it a war movie?  Yes.  Is it a comedy?  Sometimes.  Is it an adventure film?  Sure.  It's all those things.  It's a genre mixed cocktail, and I mean that with best intentions.  It's unclassifiable.

I like the look of the film.  The washed-out color really makes the desert look dry and hot.  The right actors were cast for the right roles, all three of the leads play very subdued characters, this film would have been entirely different if actors with more over-the-top acting styles were cast.  The tone of the film is perfect, it matches it's look.

I loved a lot of the writing, for example, when suitcases rip because they are full of gold bars, the former baggage handler announces that these other bags will work because their tinsel strength is high enough.  The ending seemed to drag out and get a little heavy-handed, but I can forgive that because the action fits so seemlessly into the story, instead of the other way around.  There's no doubt that this was one of the best movies of 1999, but it's one that seemingly got shoved under the bed and somehow forgotten.  Perhaps it was deemed to be too political.

- crocoPuffs

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