Writing at the end of the year, I can safely say I won’t see a worse film this year than “King Saud,” a clumsy, blood-soaked stumble through world problems through the cracked lens of local police corruption.
That a Saudi prince and his prostitute are shot and decapitated is tasteless enough but that’s the scene setter in what tries desperately to be a hard-bitten detective yarn about cracking the case. But all it manages to do is open the door to all kinds of stereotypes and cultural exaggerations that seem as dated as Muslim bans.
Mark Toma wrote, directed and even stars in the thing as a world-weary and oft-punched detective whose face is constantly screwed up like he’d smelt something bad. It’s a personal project he’s been working on for 14 years, so we can presume he was self-motivated when adding the awkward sex scenes for himself.
I’m not saying he doesn’t know anything about sex (maybe just his character doesn’t), but he doesn’t seem to know a thing about how the police operate either, as the film quickly turns into a tale about catching a corrupt district commander who we had only seen for a couple of minutes.
This after more than one flashback that initially seemed entirely incongruous to anything else going on. Bad acting is an issue all around, but at least Kate Orsini seems to know she’s stuck in a stinker, sticking with it just as her character must put up with Toma’s oafish detective (though she sleeps with him to get more info — is this good police work, bad decision making or more of Toma’s bad script?).
Mike Saad has fun playing an over-the-top Saudi personal assistant who might have the key to the beheading. But there’s so much random bloodshed (indicated by spatter) and gunplay there’s hardly room to lighten the mood in a film so desperate to be noir, a lonely muted trumpet plays between scenes, over stock shots of L.A. traffic.
The politics of “King Saud” is probably the most muddled of all and every time a Muslim slags America, Toma’s detective brings up 9/11. Meant to be contemporary, it ends up being as dated as it is dull and dumb.
“King Saud” is available on Google Play, You Tube and Amazon Prime.