Good start, but then it gets ruined

An Exercise In Nonsense

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The Arab world. a portrait created using cliches and mixed stories and confrontations scenes. and personal stories. the result is far to be remarkable. but decent. and interesting. and that fact is the basic motif for see it. sure, for a part of cast, for landscapes and for fragments of plot. but important is the detail than it is better than more of its public expectations. and this represents a good point.

Emir Nesib of Hobeika (Antonio Banderas) and Sultan Amar of Salma (Mark Strong) are rivals, and they have set aside The Yellow Belt between the two tribes as a no-man's land. Amar's two sons are taken by Nesib as hostages to keep the peace. When Texas oilmen finds oil in the Yellow Belt, Nesib uses the oil to modernize but Amar refuses to accept the violation of their peace treaty. Amar's son Prince Auda (Tahar Rahim) is caught in the middle trying to bring the opposite sides together. Freida Pinto also stars as Princess Leyla.They are trying to bring a compelling piece of history to life. The time when Texas oilmen first meet the Arab world. They try to intermix some Hollywood melodrama with some more traditional Arab insights. It makes it feel like less authentic, but it does have some great adventures. There are no absolute bad or good from the two leaders as Auda tries to navigate both world. Nesib is trying to gain modernity for the good of his people. Amar sees the gold that comes from the oil as little value and mostly corrupting. I don't know if anything is truly resolved in the end with both sides of the argument undefeated. In fact, the death of Amar is a complete cop-out. It leaves a big question completely unanswered. I think there is a better movie to be made about that era.

Super-high production values here. That's why I rented it. I knew they'd spent some money. To some(me too, initially), it looks like a "B" flick you've never heard of.In that regard it might exceed some people's expectations.In hindsite, however, the story is an excellent platform for a great drama, but unfortunately, that drama never comes to fruition.And I'm not sure why. The film needed more dialog between its lead character(Auda, played by Tahir from 'A Prophet' fame), and both of his "fathers". We get far too little quality acting and dialog, and way too much meandering amongst the desert. Mark Strong is excellent as usual - too bad he has 5 or 6 lines in the entire film(most coming in the first 10 minutes).The film should have worked dynamically, but the lack of quality dialog and the lack of drama ruin the film. One of many balls that were dropped. The "falcon" storyline and connection - also dropped like a 16-pound bowling ball. The final scene between Banderas and Rahim, ditto.Watch this film for what it should have been - one of the best made for TV epics ever put on the living room screen.The film deserves some credit for not selling-out to the geek squad, and for not boring me(entirely), but the film really could have been great.It's quite beautiful to look at, and most of the acting is passable, but again, it lacks the drama to give it the emotional power to match its 'look'.60/100 and considering it's 50 million-dollar budget - I won't be adding it to the B-Movie-Marathon anytime soon(even though its total-lack of box-take makes it eligible).not bad for out-of-the-redbox with low-expectations.

Not a bad movie. The girl is pretty. The fellows are brave. The subject matter is interesting. It's disappointing they didn't make a really great movie, like "Lawrence of Arabia". CONTAINS SPOILERS! The ending is predictable but the beginning makes it watchable. I was pleased it didn't turn into a mindless James Bond moment. I was delighted the Princess goes for the smart brother rather than the dashing one. "Smart is Sexy". The action is kind of gruesome. That's enough dead camels, thank you, please stop. I was disappointed the title has nothing to do with the movie. The comic relief was sparse but there. I like period pieces but it didn't pull me in. The meeting between the father and son is not intense. I hoped for a much better argument. These guys are supposed to be the best and the brightest and it gets off to a good start but then it fizzles. Better foreshadowing would have really helped the weak ending. Obviously a better ending might have been its own salvation. Watch it on a Sunday night with popcorn and a soda you'll be fine.