by Anthony Bruno

Like a Certs mint ("It's a breath mint! It's a candy mint!") The Kingdom is two — two! — movies in one. An intense CSI-type police procedural and a slam-bam rescue thriller. And remarkably the filmmakers manage to pull off both with style and skill.

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Loosely — very loosely — based on the tragic 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in which 19 American servicemen were killed, The Kingdom follows four hard-nosed FBI special agents investigating the bombing of an American civilian housing complex in Riyadh. Terrorists disguised as Saudi police officers pull off the attack in broad daylight. The most likely culprit is an infamous terrorist bomb maker who has been wreaking havoc for years. Strategizing in Washington, the FBI team feels that they must go to Riyadh to help with the investigation because most of the victims were Americans, and they have know-how that the Saudis don't. But the Saudi police, deeply embarrassed that the terrorists used police uniforms to perpetrate their crime, don't want the FBI's help, and the U.S. State Department doesn't want them meddling either. But, of course, that doesn't stop them —there wouldn't be a movie otherwise.

Team leader, Special Agent Ron Fleury (Jamie Foxx) strong-arms a Saudi diplomat into getting him permission to land at the royal airport in Riyadh. Fleury has the tacit approval of the FBI director (Richard Jenkins). But when Fleury and his team of crime-scene investigators — wonkish Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman), Tootsie Pop-addicted Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), and crusty, good-ole-boy Grant Sykes (the always wonderful Chris Cooper)—arrive in Riyadh, a State Department petty bureaucrat named Damon Schmidt, played by Jeremy Piven (channeling his over-the-top obnoxious Entourage character, Ari Gold) attempts to waylay our heroes and send them back home immediately. But Schmidt's priorities shift when Saudi bigwigs suddenly arrive, and he scrambles to hide Agent Mayes's breasts in accordance with Islamic religious practices. "We need to cover these situations," he says as he throws a garment around her. (Lest the audience lose sight of her breasts, throughout the film the shaky, hand-held camera takes sneak peeks of her tee-shirt-clad bust every chance it gets. It is a Hollywood film, after all, so we have to get a measure of sex to go with the violence.)

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Feature Story: Khobar Towers