On the back of another war movie picking up a number of Oscar’s, Paul Greengrass turns up with Matt Damon in Green Zone. Set in and around the stampede to find WMD, Matt Damon plays Chief Miller, who after a number of failed WMD recovery missions, starts asking questions. And not just any oul questions! He wants to know why time after time, intelligence providing the location of WMD has turned up nothing. Nada, Not even a smell of a WMD. Combine this with a CIA big wig played by Brendan Gleeson and a constant attempt to feed the media a positive spin from Washington (not to mention the various agendas) and you have a pretty damn good movie!
Miller bounces back and forth with his unit and eventually discovers, predictably, that all is not right and he’s been fed shovels of bullshit. So he decides to go rogue, assisted by a one legged local who acts as a translator, in an attempt to find out the truth. What he learns is potentially a frightening piece of realism, where there’s more than 2 sides and it really is every side for themselves, regardless of who stands next to one another on the battle field.
Watching Green Zone is akin to driving a supercar incredibly quick. From start to finish, Green Zone is an assault on the senses, in a style that has become all too familiar from the likes of the Greengrass directed Bourne movies. But this time round, it’s far, far, far more intense. Hand held shots, wide shots, close up shots bombard the viewer for most of the 115 minute running time. I’m sure some may find it nauseating, but for me, it added immensely to the tension and the intensity of the movie. Without this type of filmmaking, Green Zone could well be a different picture.
Matt Damon, looks convincing enough as a member of the US army, laden down with heavy gear and what not, but he might be entirely convincing if he wasn’t so clean cut all the time. His performance is solid, nothing mind-blowing or anything, and he pounds his way through the movie as the all caring, good guy. Brendan Gleeson is also very good here, although his accent let’s him down terribly. What ever pseudo American accent he puts on here, doesn’t work. It sounds forced and false. I can’t see why he didn’t use his own accent here! I’m sure there’s plenty of Irish working for the CIA! Whilst based on a book, by the former Baghdad Chief of the Washington Post, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, at times Green Zone feels a little unbelievable. Not enough to derail the whole thing, but enough to make you wonder.
But wonder for long; you won’t, minor criticisms aside, as Green Zone is a thrilling, entertaining and intense ride and while the war movie genre is being done to death over the last few years, this is not the best one,but certainly one of the better ones. Green Zone will leave you thinking about what has gone on over the years and what has been fed to the media, and how there is always more than 2 sides to every story! Enjoyable!!!!
Miller bounces back and forth with his unit and eventually discovers, predictably, that all is not right and he’s been fed shovels of bullshit. So he decides to go rogue, assisted by a one legged local who acts as a translator, in an attempt to find out the truth. What he learns is potentially a frightening piece of realism, where there’s more than 2 sides and it really is every side for themselves, regardless of who stands next to one another on the battle field.
Watching Green Zone is akin to driving a supercar incredibly quick. From start to finish, Green Zone is an assault on the senses, in a style that has become all too familiar from the likes of the Greengrass directed Bourne movies. But this time round, it’s far, far, far more intense. Hand held shots, wide shots, close up shots bombard the viewer for most of the 115 minute running time. I’m sure some may find it nauseating, but for me, it added immensely to the tension and the intensity of the movie. Without this type of filmmaking, Green Zone could well be a different picture.
Matt Damon, looks convincing enough as a member of the US army, laden down with heavy gear and what not, but he might be entirely convincing if he wasn’t so clean cut all the time. His performance is solid, nothing mind-blowing or anything, and he pounds his way through the movie as the all caring, good guy. Brendan Gleeson is also very good here, although his accent let’s him down terribly. What ever pseudo American accent he puts on here, doesn’t work. It sounds forced and false. I can’t see why he didn’t use his own accent here! I’m sure there’s plenty of Irish working for the CIA! Whilst based on a book, by the former Baghdad Chief of the Washington Post, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, at times Green Zone feels a little unbelievable. Not enough to derail the whole thing, but enough to make you wonder.
But wonder for long; you won’t, minor criticisms aside, as Green Zone is a thrilling, entertaining and intense ride and while the war movie genre is being done to death over the last few years, this is not the best one,but certainly one of the better ones. Green Zone will leave you thinking about what has gone on over the years and what has been fed to the media, and how there is always more than 2 sides to every story! Enjoyable!!!!
