Green Zone

"Green Zone" was directed by Paul Greengrass ("Bourne Surpemacy" and "Bourne Ultimatum").  It stars Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, and several other people who are not as well known as the aforementioned actors...purely my opinion  The movie is based off the book "Imperial Life in the Emeral City," by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.


"The Green Zone" takes place in Iraq in 2003.  Matt Damon plays Roy Miller, a Chief Warrant Officer who is in charge of of a group of men trying to find weapons of mass destruction that they think are out in the desert.  Yeah I am awful at giving the synopses of movies...in my defense I have a horrible memory. So watch the trailer and decide if it seems like it's worth your time.


Sometime after seeing "Invictus" in December I decided that I love Matt Damon.  And for good reason, he's a great actor and proves time and time again that he is capable of playing the lead in a movie.  He was the main reason for me wanting to see "Green Zone" to begin with.  Matt Damon is great in this movie and puts most of the other people in the cast to shame...That may be a really broad statement, but I'm pretty fine with that.


The shaky handheld camera work of the "Bourne" movies are back.  And they turned out pretty great.  The  quick edits and shaky camera work were very effective.  It added a sense of intensity and added to the action.  It didn't, for me, anyway, get distracting at all as I was watching the movie.  All of the quick camera pans back and forth, etc seemed completely thought out.  I felt like this technique is especially useful for a war movie...since I'm a definite expert on that subject...  The visuals in general were very well done in the movie, with the explosions, gunfire, aerial shots, and any other action-related thing one can think of.


I really don't like war movies.  I usually can't handle them and I get bored and confused so easily for some reason...maybe I just need more dialogue...who knows . The exception to this rule is of course "Saving Private Ryan" which is one of the best movies that I have seen. I guess that's what happens when Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks join forces.  So generally speaking, I am one of the worst people to review a war movie, like "Green Zone" for instance.  So take from that what you will and that's the reason why this is a pretty sketchy, skimpy review.


So I don't like war movies usually and they tend to really confuse me.  I really enjoyed Matt Damon and the camera work, though.  Watch the trailer and decide if you feel like seeing it.  It did get a low rating on RottenTomatoes, if you trust that sort of thing...I usually do...it's a good reference for movie reviews.  I was entertained though and was glad it wasn't longer because it would have gotten tedious...2 1/2 out of 4 stars.


-Joseph Sbrilli