raidernation-20472 The movies about three soldiers George Clooney Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube who basically start out as greedy military men trying to get a piece of pie for themselves and end up becoming Heroes who helped these group of people out interesting story that you definitely won't see again

Tweekums After the liberation of Kuwait in 1991 a cease fire has been declared but as rumours of looted gold start to circulate a US soldier finds a map hidden on an Iraqi prisoner. It isn't long before four soldiers are heading into Iraq to liberate the gold for themselves. Once there they also find Shiite Iraqis who have followed American advice to rise up against the Saddam Hussein government and have now been abandoned to their fate at the hands of the Iraqi forces. They get their hands on the gold but there problems are only just beginning; one of them is captured and if they want to rescue him they will have to work with the rebels then help them get to safety in Iran.When I first watched this I suspected it would be a remake of 'Kelly's Heroes'; thankfully, apart from the plan to get rich acquiring gold during a conflict, it is very different. There are lots of funny moments early on; some, such as the cow that explodes after stepping in a cluster bomblet, may be a bit dark for some people's taste. The laughs serve to make the more serious moments all the more shocking; when an Iraqi woman is shot in the head you know the tone of the film is taking a drastic change. There are disturbing scenes of torture where strangely it is hard not to feel some sympathy for the torturer as he relates what happened to his wife and child during a US bombing. The cast do a solid job; George Clooney is on good form as Archie Gates, the group's leader and is ably supported by Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze as the other four protagonists. The rest of the cast are pretty good too. The action scenes are exciting but manage to capture some of the horror of war without being too horrific… it certainly doesn't have the gung-ho feeling of many such films; war is not glorified. Overall I'd say that, while this certainly won't be for everybody, I'd recommend those who enjoy a war film and like their humour fairly dark.

jimbo-53-186511 At the end of the Gulf War, 4 soldiers acquire a map from the most unlikely of places and discover that this map may contain the whereabouts of some hidden gold close to one of their bases. The 4 men set out on a journey to find the gold, but this is less than straight forward and the 4 men encounter both danger and some unexpected assistance along the way.I haven't read John Ridley's novel (upon which this film is based), but it seems that Russell's has given Three Kings a very tongue-in-cheek feel - this is perfectly fine with me as I'll always prefer a serious film that's laced with humour as opposed to one that is deadly serious throughout its running time. The humorous tone that Russell adopts through most of the film serves it well and the camaraderie is top-notch between the likes of Clooney, Wahlberg and Ice Cube. Although I like serious films with humour thrown in I do think that filmmakers should be careful about how much humour is injected into a film - using war as a backdrop gives the film serious undertones and these undertones shouldn't be forgotten. I personally felt Russell may have overdone things slightly here, but I definitely felt it was a case of more being right than wrong. The soldier's camaraderie is a major strength and it's therefore a shame that Russell makes very little attempt to develop their characters - there is a little insight into Wahlberg's characters life, but nothing is afforded to any of the other characters. Had their characters been developed a little more then it probably would have made it easier to invest in them as people.Despite the picture having a generally humorous tone, Russell still manages to deliver the goods when it's time to get serious. The film has a very realistic feel to it which is probably helped by the fact that some real-life refugees were used in the film's production. I also noted that Mark Wahlberg was actually electrocuted in the scene where he is being tortured - you can't ask for much more realism than that!!! This is perhaps the reason that the film feels so realistic and despite seeming silly at times Russell also remembers to give it a sense of realism as well.Although war and politics play a part in Three Kings it is a film that is more about human values and common decency and whilst it does have some minor weaknesses its many strengths more than outweigh these weaknesses.

Rob Weidner I watched this movie after watching the Hollywood Reporter's Director's round table with David O Russell, Quintin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, etc (highly recommend) and was incredibly surprised that I hadn't seen this film before. It has the humour of George Clooney's, The Monuments Men, yet the historical context of a very real issue that faced Iraq in the late 1990's. I love Mark Wahlberg now and in his early years and his performance stood up to my expectations. The outlandish series of events that happens to the protagonists leaves you laughing in your seat without being overbearing. Ice Cube plays his usual comedic relief character and rounds out the cast wonderfully.