Rated: M
Running Time: 114 mins
Director: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson
Release Date: 11th March 2010
Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass team up once again for “Green Zone”, which is starting to be known as “Bourne 4”. But apart from those two, and the genre of political thriller meets action blockbuster, this is a very different film. Unfortunately.
The title refers to the US occupied area in Iraq, where soldiers live and play in the crumbling palaces once belonging to Saddam Hussein. The story is set in 2003, with Damon playing Army Chief Miller, who leads a team searching for those infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction. After several raids fail to reveal any weapons of any kind, Miller begins to be sceptical of the intelligence reports given to them by a mysterious source called “Magellan”.
Pentagon’s Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) and Wall Street Journal reporter Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan) are no help, neither wanting to give up the source, except for revealing it comes from a high ranking Iraqi official. Miller’s only ally to find the truth is CIA Agent Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) who is suspicious of the fact that any WMDs exist.
Paul Greengrass once again uses his trademark shaky handheld camera and quick shots to heighten tension, so if you are susceptible to motion sickness at all, make sure you sit as far away from the screen as possible! You either love his signature style or you don’t, and while it is hard at times to see exactly what is happening, I am a big fan of his raw, fast-paced approach, which put you on the ground amongst the all the action.
And there is a lot of action, but “Green Zone” is not nearly as exciting as the Bourne trilogy. The characters lack depth – I would have loved to learn a bit more about Miller, his back-story, and why he seems so determined to find the truth.
Reviewed by Alicia Malone
The plot is interesting, more anti-American (or I should say, anti-Bush) than I expected, but would have held more weight a few years ago, when these issues were a hot topic. Now it feels like it’s too little too late.
3 out of 5
Reviewed by Alicia Malone
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