Kings of revenge

In the post-9/11 world, not many movies have used radical Middle Eastern terrorists like those in "True Lies." Actor-turned-director Peter Berg ("Friday Night Lights") decided that it's been long enough and the time has come to see Americans getting revenge on the radical Muslim community, so he's given us "The Kingdom." Sit back and enjoy the destruction.\nA terrorist cell sets off a bomb during a softball game full of American workers in Saudi Arabia, a.k.a., The Kingdom. FBI agent Francis Manner (Kyle Chandler) is assigned to help with the relief efforts and calls friend and fellow agent Ron Fleury (Jamie Foxx) to tell him about the damage. Then a second bomb goes off, killing Manner and many more. \nWhen he is told he cannot go to The Kingdom, Fleury maneuvers around protocol, leverages some Saudi officials and gets his crew -- bomb expert Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), forensics analyst Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner) and technical guru Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) -- to tag along. Once in The Kingdom, the special unit works with Colonel Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhorn) to solve the crime.\nWhile the plot is simple, nearly everything in this film works. If you don't know much about Saudi Arabia, the inventive opening credits give a 75-year timeline of the changes there, and it's actually informative as a "Saudi Arabia for Dummies" guide.\nThe performances are surprisingly solid. Although the four leads are playing the types of characters they've played before, here they do them a bit better. Foxx's character isn't ranting the entire film, and his relationship with Barhorn's Faris comprises the best non-action scenes. Barhorn's performance as the Saudi colonel is easily the best of the film.\n"The Kingdom" is also surprisingly emotional. Although many of the emotional scenes are borderline cheesy, they come off sucessfully because of the natural camera work and the excellent score, both of which are becoming Berg's go-to moves that he perfected in the world of "Friday Night Lights."\n"The Kingdom" shouldn't be as good as it is. It's a simple action-revenge flick with lofty Middle Eastern terrorist vibes that should make you feel a bit dumb for liking it so much. But everything is done so well and it's so undeniably entertaining that it's almost impossible not to enjoy it.