Sunday, March 21, 2010

Green Zone

Movie name: Green Zone
Year of release: 2008/2010
Director: Paul Greengrass
Stars: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Jason Isaacs, Jerry Della Salla, Khalid Abdalla
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6

Synopsis:"Green Zone" is Paul Greengrass's new film following the hugely successful diptych "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum". The film follows US chief officer Roy Miller as he is stationed in Iraq in the aftermath of the War and his attempts to find Weapons of Mass Destruction. The officer keeps noticing that all the locations his teams get sent to always have nothing to report or are simply empty. Upon further investigation, Roy Miller comes across Martin Brown, a veteran CIA agent who can provide further information, as well as Clark Poundstone a somewhat shady agent who knows a lot more of what's going on than he cares to show. What follows is Roy Miller's attempt to bring light upon a situation that is making the war explode in all directions. Paul Greengrass is obviously a very talented film-maker, who brings a kinetic energy to every project he touches. His documentary style adds a layer of tension to each story he chooses to display and "Green Zone" fits perfectly to that style. It's a film that lives from the war atmosphere that it creates and the energy that fills every frame is palpable. Where the film lacks some pertinent resonance is the way it portrays Roy Miller as a hero that brings the truth about war to the masses. The lone wolf that exposes the corruption of truth doesn't really fit the story and glossies up something that should have been grittier - much like Kathryn Bigelow's film "The Hurt Locker". Matt Damon again does a good job playing a resilient and stoic soldier as does Greg Kinnear as the corrupt politician and Amy Ryan as the resourceful journalist. A solid action film.

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