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 3/5 Stars.

  Cerr

  

  Disappointing.

• • Currently 1/5 Stars.

  Dezo

  

  A really poor film. This is a film that is riddled with no wmd in Iraq propaganda. It is shoved down your throat for the whole film. Otherwise it's very boring and very very predictable. There aren't even any action scenes to write home about.

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  Swagga Whaa

  

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  Ellegibbons

  

  Brill film exactly what you would expect from the makers of the previous Bourne movies. Matt Damon delivered! Must see movie!!!!

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  mart

  

  great action and stuff, but not a patch on the Bourne movies

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  darthrodney

  

  Good movie, not great but very good. The adverts market this as a action movie, its not ... action with a message of the war in Iraq was fabricated gets hammered home. Damon is very believable in the lead role, Kinnear and Gleeson are solid. The SFX are very good but not intrusive and make you believe you are in Baghdad even though it was filmed in Spain/Morocco and England. Warning if you don't like the "shaky cam" style that Greengrass uses (in particular in Bourne Supremecy, i felt motion sick watching that one ...) this movie uses that style in abundance and makes the action scenes difficult to watch at times.

• • Currently 5/5 Stars.

  andrewire

  

  Terrific action film. There's so much going on, so much suspense and conflict. Initially, my expectations were very low; after 15 minutes, I completely changed my mind: I knew I was watching a great film. Of course it is not perfect --a bit predictable in the end-- but I wish most action movies were like this one. The performances are top-notch; Matt Damon excels as the leading character. I really felt a connection between what he was doing and what I expected him to do. Kinnear and Gleeson are good enough, and the supporting cast is also outstanding. Green Zone is, undoubtedly, one of the best war films I've ever seen. Much of this success belongs to Paul Greengrass, who is such an interesting director. Don't be surprised if you see it winning Oscars next year. A must-see, definitely!

• • Currently 1/5 Stars.

  Out_Of_Step

  

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  peteclarke

  

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