Movies.ie

• Critic rating
• Currently 3/5 Stars.

Movies.ie Critic Review

Something of a companion piece to Greengrass' brilliant United 93 – which charted the story of United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on September 11^th –Damon plays Army Chief Warrant officer Roy Miller, arriving in Baghdad along with a big chunk of the US military to, you know, finds those weapons of mass destruction, kick Saddam Hussein's ass, and have Osama Bin Laden running to them in flight, preferably with arms wailing and white flag flapping. Only, Miller and his friends quickly realised they have a much bigger fight on their hands than anticipated. For now though, this is turning into a one-man mission to find those WMDs...

THE VERDICT: ...and that gives Greengrass the opportunity to do his trademark frenetic, wibbly-wobbly wonder quick-edit onslaught, as Miller finds himself regularly going mano-o-many-manos.

It's a cinematic style that reflects the madness on the ground in Baghdad at that time, but surprisingly, this is where Green Zone starts to feel conventional. Not Rambo conventional, but certainly you begin to feel as though this is simply Bourne in a uniform. Rather than an attack on the Iraqi war.

Which, given that Greengrass and writer Brian Hegeland were 'inspired by' (as the credits put it) Rajiv Chandrasekaran's damning bookImperial Life In The Emerald City – the Washington Post war reporter bluntly ridiculing the American effort in Iraq – feels more than a little disappointing.

Review By Paul Byrne

• Avg User rating
• Currently 3/5 Stars.

User Reviews

• • Currently 2/5 Stars.

  maircc

  

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  foxyiam

  

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  crazylegs

  

  Not Bourne, but still very good!

• • Currently 2/5 Stars.

  hammer

  

  A giant let down....

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  Trevor Valentine

  

  Knew it wasn't going to be anything like the Bourne movies

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  vaughanb

  

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  Seldom_Seen_Kid

  

• • Currently 5/5 Stars.

  Hadouken65

  

• • Currently 2/5 Stars.

  The Smurf

  

  Poor film that barks on about the truth/lie saga on the search for weapons of mass destruction and the justification of the bush/blair iraq war.

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  BIGBADBRIAN

  

  Green Zone is a very smart movie. Obviously starring Damon and being directed by Greengrass there are elements of Bourne here but it is very different type of film. The action and pace is quick and fast but the story is compelling as its relevant. Kinear is on top form, great actor as is Gleeson(except is accent.) Very enjoyable and informative.

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  loschecj

  

  Yeah good enough. Not blown away by it, and definately wouldn't call it the 4th Bourne film. Not as clever or as whitty as the Bourne trilogy.

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  Moose

  

  not as great as i thought it would be

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  TheAngelicDiablo

  

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  ssconnolly

  

  The war genre has always been popular in America. There are hundreds of war films, most of which have been critically acclaimed and some even rewarded by the Academy. So when America invaded Iraq in 2003 it was always going to spawn some films about the conflict. The Kingdom, In the Valley of Elah, Body of Lies, Brothers. Many renowned filmmakers and actors have tried and failed to make a great war film set in Iraq but last year we got the first true masterpiece in the form of The Hurt Locker. And when I read the reviews for Green Zone I assumed I was to witness masterpiece number two but I was bitterly disappointed when I finally saw the film. Based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City the story follows Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller and his men who are put in charge of finding weapons of mass destruction, often risking their on lives to do so. The existence of these materials are the only thing which justifies Americas involvement in Iraq but everywhere they look there is nothing there. Millar begins to question the accuracy of their intelligence, and his doubts are confirmed by a veteran CIA operative who tells him America are attempting to take over the country by installing a leader they can control. Miller then continues to investigate but finds himself being hunted by other agencies and officials before he can find the truth which leads to an exciting climax. Watching trailers for Green Zone and listening to all the hype I figured this was going to be an extremely entertaining film with mindless action and not much else to offer. My assumptions were fueled by the fact that the film once again reunites Matt Damon and his Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass. And I know everyone is saying this about Green Zone but for me it was effectively Bourne in war. I mean it was remarkably similar to the Bourne films. There was suspense, conflict, secrets, corrupt officials, action, intelligence and Damon getting to the bottom of it all, often using his combat training to do so. Sure I'm kind of simplifying the whole thing but they are undeniably similar. But despite what I took to be more of the same from Greengrass the film was undeniably quite good. It's not great but is fast paced, always engaging and extremely smart. There wasn't even nearly enough action that I had hoped and concentrates more on the story but this isn't a bad thing. But the the films fatal flaw, the problem that prevented me from loving it was the direction. For those who are familiar with Greengrass then you will know that he quite likes his shaky camerawork approach to his filmmaking. And here we have shaky cam galore which I personally find very annoying. It just makes scenes very confusing. Within the chaos of war, the constant shooting, explosions and disorder it is very easy to get lost and watching a film with a camera that never stops moving makes it increasingly more difficult to follow. The films cast are all quite good. Matt Damon is impressive in the lead role but I was hoping he would branch out from this kind of film. Don't get me wrong he was really good and entirely convincing as the army officer but I was hoping he would continue his recent trend of showing off his versatility. In the last few months he has played Captain of the South African rugby team, a sleazy and manipulative informant for the FBI and the voice of Koichi in Anime feature Ponyo. But now he is right back to Bourne. But I think his display was more impressive than I first thought as he managed to make me really like his character but not until I sat down to write this review did I notice that he managed this without ever telling us anything about him. This fact alone had given me a new found respect for Damon and his acting ability. The support cast are, like in most films hit and miss. Greg Kinnear is very good as corrupt official Clark Poundstone. Brendan Gleeson also stars and as much as I like him I can't deny how bad he was. The reason I didn't like his performance was because if his horrible attempt at the American accent. This was unfortunately the only problem but one which continued to irritate me for the entire runtime. But the best performance of the film, apart from Damon came from the man who plays a helpful Iraqi citizen. I'm not entirely sure who plays the role and so won't speculate in case I'm completely wrong but he was brilliant in it and it was a fine display. So all in all Green Zone is an exciting, suspenseful but ultimately average film. It could have been a lot better but Greengrass' direction for me stopped the film from being more than just worth a look. I know its his style but in the war setting it made things far too chaotic as there was enough going on without all that. So that is my recommendation a decent film which would be better with more emphasis put on clarity.

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  Wicklow80

  

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