BEFORE: Sticking with the Gulf War theme, though this one takes place in Saudi Arabia. Linking from "Courage Under Fire", Matt Damon was also in "Syriana" with Chris Cooper (last seen in "Seabiscuit").
THE PLOT: A team of U.S. government agents is sent to investigate the bombing of an American facility in the Middle East.
AFTER: The film opens with a socio-political explanation of the Middle East conflict, which rightly centers on the logistics of oil - who has it, and who wants it. Which is good, because without that, the movie wouldn't really get into the WHY of war, and without that, it's just a shoot-em-up.
The action sequences are well-done, those seem to be the focus of the piece, though it starts out as an investigation of a bombing, almost like an episode of "CSI: Riyadh". Fortunately the FBI agents here are just as good in a firefight as they are sifting through a crime scene.
There are very broad generalizations made, however - all Arabs depicted seem to be either Saudi police or terrorists, and rarely anything in-between. And I suspect the Middle East conflict is probably a bit more complex than the black-and-white issues shown here. Arab investigators are portrayed as incompetent, or unable to do proper police investigating, and the U.S. agents are of course extremely knowledgable and doggedly determined.
Other than that, not a bad little war film.
Also starring Jamie Foxx (last seen in "Law Abiding Citizen"), Jennifer Garner (last seen in "The Invention of Lying"), Jason Bateman (last seen in "Up in the Air"), Danny Huston (last seen in "Robin Hood"), Richard Jenkins (last seen in "The Mod Squad"), Jeremy Piven (last seen in "Black Hawk Down"), Ashraf Barhom, with cameos from Tim McGraw, Frances Fisher, Kyle Chandler.
RATING: 6 out of 10 bullet-proof vests
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