Kingdom of Dust (2011)

Kingdom of Dust, or Hostages as it is also known, focuses on the captivity of American Adam Smith who is being held somewhere in war-torn Baghdad. As coalition forces draw closer, Adam awaits rescue while hoping and praying help will arrive before his execution.

Overall Review Score

0.5 out of 10

Review

Kingdom of Dust was produced on a very small budget and it shows. The film features one dimensional characters that engage in little to no character development. Furthermore it contains virtually unknown actors, one set for the entire movie and half of the film is spoken in a foreign language without the use of subtitles. It is so bad even the characters, minus Adam Smith, do not have last names. This 98-minute film makes you question how certain films make it out of a studio. The raw emotion of certain actors, in a very limited number of scenes, is the only thing that is decent about this film. Overall, this film show be renamed from Kingdom of Dust to Left in the Dust – as it failed on nearly every level to be enjoyable, entertaining or engaging.

Reviewer 1's score & comments:

Score: 0 out of 10

Comments:

Originally known as Kingdom of Dust, Hostage had a decent premise that could have been a exciting film had it materialised. Instead the audience is treated to frankly appalling acting, a terribly thought out story and an on-screen diatribe of religious justification. Further to this, the half the spoken dialogue is Arabic, as the hostage takers talk amongst themselves, and with no subtitles available on the DVD or explanation of what is being said, the audience is ultimately left feeling confused. This resulted in the Reviewers ad-libbing lines during the film to ease its monotonous, soul-destroying tone.

Reviewer 2's score & comments:

Score: 1 out of 10

Comments:

Whatever you want to call this film - Kingdom of Dust, Hostage, little box in the desert or one set, two things become very clear within the first five minutes of watching it. Firstly, you are going to spend half the film wondering why you are watching it and the other half wondering what is going on. Secondly, it lacks decent characters or even a story for that matter. When I start ad-libbing lines you know a film is in trouble, as it means I have totally switched off. Kingdom of Dust is not the worst film I have ever watched and some of the scenes were a mixture of powerful emotions and semi- decent acting but most of the film is still confusing now and I still do not understand why it was created.

#drama