In what is essentially a slick, movie-length “CSI: Saudi Arabia,” The Kingdom combines the standard action flick with the forensic whodunnit and shakes it up with some international diplomatic intrigue. 
There is something cathartic about a blow-em-up, shoot-em-up flick that is reasonably well constructed, and director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Hancock) is a technically skilled, confident director usually not seduced by artifice. The filmmakers hit all the genre marks, but do so with an earnest – perhaps too earnest – attempt to convey the unique, longstanding position that Saudi Arabia holds in international and especially American political and economic policy and practice.
The film also attempts to present a balanced view of the Saudi, and by extension, middle eastern perspective on politics, Islam, and America. The approach isn’t just to show that your average Saudi is good, ethical, normal person who despises extremism. The final exchange in the film underscore the secondary message that the no people, Americans included, are isolated from the base reactionary instincts to disproportionately seek retribution, or to lose the ability to see a situation and those responsible with a dispassionate eye. So in addition to seeing Jennifer Garner kick some serious ass, The Kingdom might just inform or enlighten it audience. That’s not bad for what would otherwise be a mindless entertainment. The film is well cast. Jamie Foxx exceeds expectations as the leader of his small FBI team, and as his Saudi counterpart, Ashraf Barhom is very good. In order to tone down the Syriana factor and make the film play like a buddy movie, the two men’s relationship is more broadly sentimental than it needs to be, but for the most part, the storytelling is pretty lean. For a blow-em-up, shoot-em-up, that is.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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