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Three Kings | 
| Actors: George Clooney, Nora Dunn, Ice Cube, Holt Mccallany, Mykelti Williamson
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.98
Buy New: $7.99
You Save: $4.99 (38%)
New (79) Used (127) Collectible (4) from $0.24
Rating:  392 reviews
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 115 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.9 x 0.6
MPN: 085391786221
ISBN: 0790747421
UPC: 085391786221
EAN: 9780790747422
ASIN: B00003CX74
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Release Date: April 11, 2000
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
A confident hybrid of M*A*S*H, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and Dr. Strangelove, Three Kings is one of the most seriously funny war movies ever made. Improving the premise of Kelly's Heroes with scathing intelligence, it explores the odd connection between war and consumerism in the age of Humvees and cellular phones. Writer-director David O. Russell's third film (after Spanking the Monkey and Flirting with Disaster), it's a no-holds-barred portrait of personal conscience in the volatile arena of politics, played out by one of the most gifted filmmakers to emerge in the 1990s. George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze (director of Being John Malkovich) play a quartet of U.S. soldiers who, disillusioned by Operation Desert Storm, decide to steal $23 million in gold hijacked from Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's army. Getting the bullion out of an Iraqi stronghold is easy; keeping it is a potentially lethal proposition. By the end of their mercenary mission, the Americans can no longer ignore wartime atrocities (and neither can we--the film is boldly unflinching), and conscience demands their aid to Iraqi rebels abandoned by President George Bush's fickle wartime policy. This is serious stuff indeed, but Russell infuses Three Kings with a keen sense of the absurd, and the entire film is an exercise in breathtaking visual ingenuity. Despite a conventional ending that's mildly disappointing for such a brashly original film, Three Kings conveys the brutal madness of war while making you laugh out loud at the insanity. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
George Clooney Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube star in "Three Kings" the story of a small band of American soldiers in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War who seek adventure and fortune in attempting to steal a huge cache of gold hidden somewhere in the desert. Along the way they are confronted by heroic challenges and newfound discoveries that take them to places they could never have imagined.Running Time: 121 min.System Requirements:Starring: George Clooney Mark Wahlberg Ice Cube Spike Jonze Nora Dunn Jamie Kennedy Mykelti Williamson Cliff Curtis and Said Taghmaoui. Directed By: David O. Russell. Running Time: 115 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Warner Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 085391786221
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| Customer Reviews: Read 387 more reviews...
"We three kings be stealin' the gold." June 24, 2008
Allen Smalling (Chicago, IL United States)
It's 1991 and the Persian Gulf war is at an end. A cynical captain (played by George Clooney), two noncoms (Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg) and a nincompoop (Spike Jonz) are sent into the border zone to clean up.
Instead, they stumble across an enormous cache of gold bullion, all nicely laid out in heavy ingot bars. The gold is SUPPOSED to go straight back to Kuwait from where it was stolen, but . . .
No spoilers here, just to say this is a very entertaining and informative movie that touches on the wretchedness of war, the paranoia of not knowing who your political friends are, the weirdness of modern life (mini-spoiler -- at one point the Mark Wahlberg character, unable to radio his base, cell phones his wife to arrange for military reinforcements), and no small amount of welcome humor. Nora Dunn is particularly good in a tragi-comic role as a cable-news reporter unable to see beyond the lens of her next report.
This movie is significantly less preachy than SYRIANA or MICHAEL CLAYTON but it does make its points very well. Unless you are totally turned off by the idea of George Clooney in a war movie, I think you'll like THREE KINGS.
I should point out that this film premiered in 1999 and the DVD dates from 2001. Thus, it may LOOK as though the tail end of the Persian Gulf War as portrayed in this movie was meant to be a commentary on the current Iraqi commitment, but the film came out and was in DVD before the U.S. entered Iraq this time.
Also, as of now (6/2008), the regular DVD can be had for a very good price.
Surprisingly Good July 6, 2007
Francois Rossier (Nanticoke, PA USA)
I didn't expect much from this movie, but it turned out to be quite entertaining. It had a certain realism to it, and I like that, instead of the absurd storylines that are so frequent these days.
Clever, funny and different June 23, 2007
A. Hutchinson (Bronx, New York)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
David O. Russel's 'Three Kings' is a hard film to lock down into a particular genre. It combines elements of a war movie, a comedy and a drama, and manages to do it very well. People wanting to see lots of big guns and bombs should stay well clear, there are video games to keep you amused. Anyone who appreciates witty, clever and slightly off beat films is well advised to see it.
Telling the untold story of the Gulf War, with Saddam's army more worried about shooting rebel Iraqis then allied soldiers, was a brave move in Hollywood, because many people don't want to know that a democratic uprising in Iraq was being crushed while the Allies sat by in the desert. Rather than being an action movie, the film develops into an exploration of three soldiers and the human development caused by their experience of the war, and the extraordinary circumstances they place themselves in.
Many innovative and experimental cinematic styles are used nicely, and solid performances are recorded by Clooney, Wahlberg, Jonze and Cube. The characters are portrayed as normal human beings, both noble and flawed at the same time, and even the Iraqi soldiers are seen as people rather than typical war movie bad guy cannon fodder. This film genuinely showed me the desperation felt by many Iraqis for the Allies to help them as they starved and fought desperately against Saddam.
One of my favorite films, and probably one of the most underrated films of its time
 Don't like Clooney, what are you Looney? May 13, 2007
Alan I. Yanagidate
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Sorry about the title, Three kings was not a movie I chose to see on the big screen. My wife recommended it and I found it was an entertaining flick. Not a desert storm movie like Jar Heads, a different take on an old story line.
Interesting Adventure film set In Iraq after Gulf War 1 April 9, 2007
R. J. Marsella (California)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A group of Gi's in Kuwait following the first Gulf War find a map on a prisoner that leads them back across the border on a gold hunt. The country is in a state of chaos with Sadam's soldiers taking their revenge on anti- Sadam citizens. The GI's get caught up in a more complicated situation with refugees then they planned on.
Well conceived and written with excellent special effects, this is a hard movie to categorize. It's sort of Oceans 11 goes to Iraq, A combination military adventure/heist movie with some interesting social commentary and moralizing thrown in.
All three of the principal actors do a good job but Ice Cube is particularly good in this. George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg are fine in their respective roles.
Definitely entertaining and different.
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