Three Kings (1999) Review

Three Kings (1999), David O. Russell
2/5
This over-the-top gun-toting Gulf War film pretends to be a political satire, semi-spoof of the American war film, but instead follows the genre to a 'T', confirming rather than subverting genre expectations and political notions about war. Performances are average and George Clooney especially gives a flat performance, feeling more like a name on the poster than an actual character, he is of course given the higher status of "Delta force" and is shown with 'superior' fighting skills and even the camera movements glorify his star quality with sweeping shots shooting from the feet up, his body to his face. This is just one example of the terrible cinematography that is gratuitous with ridiculous shots from below of Clooney's character with the blue sky behind, the low angle making him seem huge, the traditional hero type shot. Whether some of these things were intended as spoof and to be over the top, the effect is pretentious and sentimental as it attempts to show the 'realness' of war showing that it is senseless, especially with the discourse between Mark Wahlberg's character and his interrogator. Wahlberg gives a convincing performance, showing he is good at portraying insane and idiotic characters. Ice Cube gives a pretty decent performance as well. The ending is ridiculous and overly sentimental undermining  the sense of greed, in favour of glorifying the American soldier as hero, saving the 'people'. Overall the plot is ridiculous, the film making motives are questionable, highly unrealistic, average performances and bad cinematography, although it had some good music choices and funny moments.

If you're looking for a good Gulf War film check out Jar Head (2005):
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1152567-jarhead/