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Director Mark Toma, who also stars as one of the two LA detectives investigating a double murder is inspired by Hollywood Neo-noirs that take its pulpy premise to the absolute extreme. For one, it consists of characters who feel they would star in one of those low-budget TV movies that run on cable on repeat and gain cult status. It also presents a premise and progression that is – for lack of a better word – offensive, and socially unaware. So, in that vein, “King Saud” has the inclination to become one of those trashy movies that we love to revisit. However, what we get is a haphazardly staged B-movie that doesn’t even qualify as ‘so bad that it’s good.’

The story opens with the aforementioned murders. A prostitute and a Saudi Prince are brutally murdered and decapitated. Detective Wolfe (played by Toma) is assigned to the case along with...

Combining the budget of independent productions with mainstream themes has always been a hard endeavor, usually resulting in films that are more fitted for TV than cinema. Noir crime movies, however, have frequently proved an exception, particularly in US cinema. Mark Toma tries his hand in the latter path, in a film, though that is filled with issues.

Lynch is a newcomer police detective in LA, which is paired with Wolfe, a veteran who soon proves to be as dirty and out of control as the whole of the precinct actually. Tension between the two is created from the get-go, and when they are drawn into a murder case of a prostitute involving a Saudi Arabian prince, with his butler, Al Mahir, providing leads to further the case at his own pace, they both reach a breaking point. Even more since Lynch has another agenda, while the precinct’s chief,...