Hands down one of the most Original, Unique and enjoyable films I've ever seen. To take a harsh gritty story about greed, The politics of war and the deaths of woman and children and combine both the harshness with the right blend of comedy was genius and it was all played out on screen perfectly. The story was superb and you truly didn't know where it was going or what would happen next, Combine that with the fusion of sad, funny and awe moments and this is surely one of the most rare films you will ever see. Written, Acted, directed and edited superbly, A must watch for all film enthusiasts looking for a truly captivating, thoroughly enjoyable and memorable film.

It is called Three Kings, because presumably, that is how these soldiers view themselves, strutting in their gear, towering over the common foreigners and by waving a piece of paper, able to stroll in any camp or village and take what they please. One is a party animal. Another is shameless womaniser. They all stink of the same material greed and unethical practice that dries them towards the stash of bullion gold that will make them rich if they can just sneak by unawares and avoid a court marshalling. But by the end of the film they have been struck by their innate goodness, heart and compassion and therefore give up (most of) the gold so that their refugee friends may cross the border.Is this change gradual? Not exactly. Grit is not so easy to pull off, especially in a such a politically precarious situation like the American military presence in the middle east, so Russell has gone in the completely opposite direction. The entire film has been cross-processed to produce those hyper-saturated, eye-popping colours that give the war zone a comic dreamland feel. Great billowing oil fires become little chimneys puffing up cartoon pillars of smoke. The sky takes on a garish, bubble-gum shade of blue. The never ending plains are not a desolate, parched wasteland, but rather a brightly lit playground. This might have worked if Russell had gone all the way with it and embraced his zany, ultra-stylised approach with a satirical relish. But for every kinetic, high-flying action sequence with whip pan and smash cut galore there is another that uses the same intense style but without a hint of irony. Russell can't expect the audience to laugh along when a truck is flipped on its side and skids to a grinding halt just centimetres from a mine, and then suddenly appreciate the gravitas to the silenced, slow-motion shootouts and the cold-blooded execution of a mother. Another example - Barlow is captured by the Iraqi army and tortured viciously. They are not necessarily bad people, but they are angry at this war and how the Americans have made promises they have not kept and left their country in disarray. The interrogator simply talks - he asks Barlow how he can answer for the mass bombings and how they have taken away his wife and child. He appeals to their shared fatherhood. Barlow has no answers to these difficult questions, of course - the segment is deliberately posed to force the same reflection in the audience, and although it's a little on the nose, it works. But this is coupled with the most ridiculous spiel about Michael Jackson and a American racial conspiracy about the colour of his skin that is so obviously designed to make us laugh, and on a second level, take the interrogator less seriously. The entire film Russell is leaning on these moments, hiding behind the comic absurdity that he creates himself and hoping no one will notice that he has posed the hard questions, but given nothing in response but the simple morality behind that saccharine, Hollywood ending.

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.

It's 1991 after the end of the first Iraq war. Archie Gates (George Clooney) is retiring in two weeks and escorting reporter Adriana Cruz (Nora Dunn) who is desperate for a good story. Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) and Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze) find a map in a prisoner. Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) and Gates join to go on a treasure hunt. Walter Wogaman (Jamie Kennedy) tries to misdirect Cruz.Director David O. Russell creates an outrageous war movie and gold heist. It's a mix of black comedy and action thriller. It's an unique daring mixture. It's a lot of crazy things happening on the screen. Clooney holds the whole thing together with Wahlberg doing some real good work.