One of the oddest war movies ever made, Three Kings is hardly just a 'war movie'. Much in the way of Sydney Pollack's Castle Keep in 1969, war is the premise of the film, but far from the whole story.

Set in Iraq during 1991's 'Operation Desert Storm', the film follows the path of a small unit of American soldiers on their unofficial quest for war booty. From that basic military premise, the film almost immediately takes a wild turn into the bizarre, relegating its great action scenes into the backdrop for a pointed, humorous, and often surreal overview of modern humanity.

Writer and director David O. Russell does a magnificent job of interweaving all of the bizarre real-life elements of Operation Desert Storm, where overwhelming technology was being used to subdue a stone-age country, ratings-obsessed war correspondents documented every detail, soldiers on both sides vied for camera time, and the population caught in the middle found their allegiances based not on cause, culture, or country, but on whoever was wielding a gun at any given moment.

An intelligent picture and very comical, Three Kings will appeal to more than just war movie fans, it's a fast-paced near-masterpiece of filmmaking.