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By Murray Close
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Fadil Al-Badra, Ice Cube, George Clooney and Cliff
Curtis in Three Kings
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It takes an exceptionally handsome man to look good with an unshaven face. This might be megastar-in-the-making George Clooney's greatest compliment. As Special Forces Captain Archie Gates - a Desert Storm soldier on the prowl for stolen gold - Clooney's chiseled chin never looked better than covered in stubble throughout the clever anti-war, war movie Three Kings.
Large-scale films like Three Kings generally love a man in uniform. Nothing says presence like army fatigues. But the winning key behind Three Kings' clever storytelling is not that Clooney looks good in his army duds. We could have guessed that anyway. But Clooney swaggers throughout Three Kings with such a macho presence that it's impossible to take your eyes off of him. Following in the footsteps of Out of Sight, the overlooked adaptation of Elmore Leonard's dark, crime comedy, Clooney seals his status as a major Hollywood presence with Three Kings. He really is the major reason to see the film. Past movie stumbles - The Peacemaker, From Dusk Til Dawn, as well as years of bad TV sitcoms - no longer seem so relevant after Three Kings. In the pack of next millennium leading men, it's Clooney who suddenly appears to be the most interesting to watch. He was always good-looking. Now, there's something emotionally substantial about him.
In the wake of the Desert Storm cease-fire, Gates has a proposition for army reservists Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg), Elgin (Ice Cube) and Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze). Gates has a sure-fire plan to snatch Iraqi stolen gold in occupied Kuwait. The reasoning is greedily simple: The theft will bring them undreamt-of wealth. But before these desert-storm-soldiers-turned-Robin Hoods' treasure hunt can come to a successful conclusion, some serious political games must be played. The true meaning behind Desert Storm has little to do with Yankee Doodle patriotism.
Film buffs will compare Three Kings' gold thievery to the World War II action/adventure antics of Kelly's Heroes. However, it's clear early in the film that writer/director David O. Russell's (Spanking the Monkey, Flirting with Disaster) new war movie has more in common with the liberal politics of M*A*S*H and Catch 22 than anything resembling some pro-Army actioner.
In fact, Three Kings is unlike most American war movies. It bends its categorization zestfully. Pushing the element of visual experimentation courtesy of its ultracolorful Ektachrome film stock, Three Kings keeps its lively pace through the clever use of grainy video footage, sped-up film footage and a retro Rock soundtrack. The result is a film that looks nothing like the conventional Hollywood actioner but still looks great.
Clooney's all-American presence keeps Three Kings' funky visual style on sure footing. In the vast desert wasteland, Clooney has become a younger Harrison Ford. No, he's Steve McQueen: a smart aleck troublemaker confident that he'll get what he wants every time.
Clooney has the physical tools to be Hollywood's next action hero. His jaw juts with impressive force. His close-cropped hair is a mature shade of salt-and-pepper. Clooney's saving grace has only become evident since Out of Sight. Thankfully, well at least for Clooney's sake, Three Kings conforms it: Clooney's charisma and screen presence finally match his bedroom gaze. The pretty boy has become a pretty special actor.
Maybe the transition for movie audiences was bound to take some time: seeing Clooney larger-than-life splashed across some 50-foot screen instead of those weekly visits by some mini-George into our living rooms. I have to admit that I was one of those rare people who seldom watched TV's ER. I know that qualifies me as something of a societal nerd. Still, the show never managed to pull me into its soap-opera grasp.
In a town that never tires of trumpeting the accomplishments of this local-boy-done-good (although Clooney's home is really Augusta, Ky.), my initial knee-jerk reaction was to be devil's advocate to those countless Friends of George (FOG). It was too easy to be cynical. From Dusk Til Dawn, where Clooney played a violent thug caught in a vampire lair, was an awful monster movie. The Peacemaker was a confusing revenge tale set in the Bosnia-Serbia War. Clooney's pairing with Michelle Pfeiffer for the single-parent melodrama One Fine Day was simply effervescent fun.
But Clooney's smarmy performance as the scheming Gates in Three Kings confirms the charming rouge antics we saw in 1998's Out of Sight. Clooney personifies the phrase new millennium cool. Men want to be his friend. Woman (and a good deal of men) want to bed him. Moviemade success - at least for the time being - smells like George Clooney.
It helps that the messenger of Clooney's talents is a clever action film like Three Kings. Here is the rarest of Hollywood movies: a big-budget film that is also interesting.
The plot surrounds the most old fashioned of movie images. It's hilarious how Three Kings revolves its story around the most old-fashioned of Hollywood clichés: a secret map of hidden treasure. However, Three Kings updates the story by making the treasure map a piece of a paper found shoved up an Iraqi prisoner's ass.
Clunky morality and Gulf War criticisms prevent Three Kings from its potential presence. Russell gives the film an anti-violence stance via slow-mo footage that shows a bullet ripping through a person's internal organs. It's all so heavy-handed.
Luckily, there is enough humor to keep the film moving along at a breakneck pace. Here is a war filled with competitive TV newsreporters, drunken frat boys armed with semiautomatic weapons. Cows explode into a pulpy mess. Underground shelters are stocked with TVs, stereos, computers and jewelry. It's as if Dr. Strangelove work up after 35 years and found himself wandering in the Iraqi desert.
Three Kings is ultimately a boys-and-their-treasure picture. Loved ones are kept at a distance. There's little sex. So Three Kings forces Clooney's sex appeal to smolder unfettered throughout the movie. A quick bedding of some cable news reporter early in the film is the only glimpse of Clooney pants-down. There's no use for his onscreen chemistry. In Three Kings, Gates gets off on stealing gold. One wonders: When Gates finally finds his golden booty, is he sporting a serious erection?
Build a Hollywood timeline and each era claimed a moviemade King of Cool. The 1950s had James Dean and the 1960s had Steve McQueen. Al Pacino, unattractive everyman, symbolized the 1970s and the 1980s offered Bruce Willis.
By comparison, Clooney is a real pretty boy. He's got bedroom eyes, an ample chin and the stocky build of a high school football player who never gets old. He also has a knowing smirk that reveals a man who believes he is smart, good-looking and will ultimately get whatever he wants.
These looks were a serious obstacle. We wondered if Clooney could also act well. Well, that is until Clooney found his niche with Out of Sight and Three Kings.
There are bound to be more stumbles, although I can't imagine anything as silly as Clooney donning black rubber for another Batman-like action blockbuster.
It's a matter of understanding the limited range of his smart aleck personality. It's a question of matching one's strengths against the likes of other moviemade men such as Tom Cruise, Nic Cage, John Travolta, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.
It's not enough to be the next Harrison Ford. The idea of becoming a 21st-century Cary Grant appears increasingly dull. Three Kings shows a George Clooney that's fantastic simply being George Clooney. Here's proof that becoming a movie star does not have to be a bad thing. (Rated R.)
CityBeat Grade: B.
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