Visitors Review

(2012-05-26 11:47)

The Green Identity

Take Jason Bourne character for which Matt Damon is famous, put him in BDUs, and surround him with the political influences and military consequences of the hunt for WMDs in Iraq, and you've got yourself a hit. Or so you think... The Green Zone is the story of Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon), a man whose team is responsible for finding WMDs in Iraq. Much like Ben Affleck's trophy shelf for acting, Miller's team continues to come up empty. One must question the intelligence that leads to so many duds, but enough about Paycheck and Jersey Girl. Only after he begins the hunt for the "Jack of Clubs" - which, incidentally, was the original target from a mission past that ended up at the Baghdad Jack in the Box - does Miller get frustrated and decide to go rogue, leaning on a one-legged Iraqi local to untie a complicated knot similar to the one I had in my stomach after watching Bounce. From that point it's a perilous thriller/action film, with chase scenes galore, bullets aplenty, a great soundtrack, very crisp editing, professional acting (no one really stood out), and enough political conspiracy theories - tied mostly to scheming Pentagon politico Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) - that I broke out the tinfoil. (Honestly, would it kill Hollywood to step away from the second helping of Thanksgiving propaganda?)Just go into it with intentions of ignoring the political bias, enjoying most of the action. And the freedom with which Miller's team gallivants about Iraq? Completely unbelievable, like ArmageddonThe filming was on shaky-cam overload; call it the migraine-cam. It's "watching Cloverfield on a laptop while riding a rollercoaster during an earthquake"-shaky. There are chases and gunplay scenes that are almost indiscernible. The overload of one second burst-movements almost made me have a different kind of movement, one that stinks, like Gigli.Overall, Green Zone is some fact more fiction, mostly shock sometimes awe, and far too insistent on pushing a tired political message and creating conspiratorial connections between Damon and Kinnear when it would have benefitted more if the two actors were physically connected like in Stuck On You.

ChitownMovieBuff (2012-05-25 20:11)

Not Damon's best work

While this story needs to be remembered, it's not a story most peopledon't know already. We are all fully aware that nobody found anythingin Iraq to justify the invasion. This story brought nothing new to thepublic's knowledge.If you are pro-Iraqi war, you won't like the movie. If not, you mightsimply so you can ride the anti-conservative bandwagon some more.I was expecting more of a Bourne-esquire action movie, but this turnedout to be a somewhat tepid anti-war flick or maybe a cautionary taleabout swallowing whole what your government wants to feed you.I found Damon believable in his part, but maybe there wasn't enough ofa storyline for him to sink his teeth into.

L M (2012-05-24 06:27)

Matt does his "I'm dumbstruck" face once too often.

While no straight woman in her right mind is going to complain aboutwatching Matt Damon doing manly-stuff for 2 hours, this is no BourneSupremacy.There are lots of out-of-the box scenes: crowds of soldiers shoutingabout not very much extremely loudly for too long, noble nativesbringing the well-meaning but insensitive yanks down to earth,busy-busy office scenes with lots of phones ringing.Entertaining, easy on the eye, somewhat interesting plot which Isuspect will add fuel to the fire of the conspiracy theorists, a wholeone female character who refreshingly doesn't remove any of herclothing or have sex with anyone for the entire duration of the film.

(2012-05-23 21:27)

Matt has gone over the edge.

I'm so tired of high profile actors turning into political activists. Make a movie and move on. No one cares about your left wing propaganda or right wing propaganda ....if there is any right wing propaganda in the movies now days. Bottom line...Matt you are not too big to fail and no one will bail you out if you do.

(2012-05-23 16:30)

Slow, never got off the ground.

Thought this was going to be a good movie, really was disappointed with this. The story never really got going, I kept waiting for the dime to drop, never did. Rent this only, do NOT buy it.

(2012-05-23 04:40)

Dares to Tell The Truth About WMD's

It seems as though everything breaks down along political lines these days, even movie reviews on Amazon. Right wingers say this movie is liberal pablum. Left wingers who say that this movie tells the truth that we all knew anyway. But they don't review the film. So since none of us are David Denby or Anthony Lane, here goes a super brief review:Matt Damon delivers a purposeful, severe and gritty performance. He doesn't smile once in any scene. The action sequences are also predictably grim. Greg Kinnear gives his first bad-guy performance, and he is quite believable. And then there's Igal Naor, who did such an amazing job of playing Saddam Hussein on the HBO miniseries, shines as General Al Rawi, the man who was "misquoted" about WMD's at a Jordan meeting just prior to Shock and Awe. The direction by Paul Greengrass is slick and chase oriented, as he did so well in the 'Bourne Ultimatum.' Regardless how you feel about the Iraqi war, this movie will move you emotionally.

John Jacobson (2012-05-20 12:50)

the outraged voice of the nobler part of us

First things first, "Bourne goes to Baghdad" is some marketing idiot'shamfisted idea to promote a film he isn't smart enough to describe anyother way. This film has nothing to do with the Bourne franchise.My only criticism of Green Zone is that it's 'too little, too late'. Itwould have made more of a splash if it were unleashed on the publicwhen we were still grappling with the possibility rather than theconfirmation that there were no WMDs in Iraq. Instead, it was releasedlong after every man and his dog knows Bush Inc lied to us.What kept me watching Green Zone is Chief Miller played by Damon. He islike us - the little guy trying to make sense of the mess his countryhas put him in. There are forces at work that he cant see. Thesephantom agendas make mockery of the ideals for which he risks his life.The most powerful part of the film is the conclusion. Chief Millerbecomes the outraged voice of the nobler part of us that is neitherclouded by profit nor politics.

(2012-05-20 00:49)

Ugh, nothing but a liberal rant

Don't bother with this one. Very disappointed, I am a big fan of Damon, but not this movie.

guitaru-685-610465 (2012-05-18 22:59)

Dumber than an episode of 24

I just saw this movie an hour ago and it had to have been one of thedumbest I've ever seen. I like military type movies and I'm a soldierbut even i couldn't suspend disbelieve enough to even remotely likethis or believe it was possible. My buddy and I joked after it was overthat it was just like what we'd do on mission, driving around aimlesslylooking for suspects, grabbing and shaking high ranking officials andnot going to jail for it. Even my wife, who know's nothing aboutmilitary matters was shaking her head saying, WTF, why would you do thethings Matt Damon's character was doing in the movie. As for Matt, whata wonderfully wooden performance. Save your money.

(2012-05-18 15:21)

Just a little Honesty.

This review is from: Green Zone (DVD) This is a reason that the entire Bush/ Cheney regime needs to be brought to justice for war crimes, treason, incompetence, greed and torture. The blood of all the American troops lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 100,000's of innocent people are on the hands of Bush and Cheney.Excellent Movie!

(2012-05-18 16:34)

Bourne Identity Team Creates Epic Fail

What a huge disappointment. Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon are an outstanding team when it comes to the Bourne series. In Green Zone they try to take that same formula and use an important issue like "Why we went to war" as a PLOT POINT. Not only does it cheapen the entire film but the characters are all cookie cutter and the dialogue is even more cliche. Add on top of that the director's usual frenzied, handheld style during action scenes (which usually works) but here it's almost impossible to tell what's going on.What a waste of talent across the board. Even Matt Damon's character has NO CHARACTER. He's just some random rogue agent whose gone "off the reservation." Why has he done this? Why now?Basically, this is a lousy grade Z screenplay that they tried to cover up with A grade talent and it ends up being boring, insulting and disappointing. Regardless of your politics, you'd be better off watching any of the Bourne movies again unless you put this on during a rainy Sunday and nod off to the non-stop nothingness on the couch.Epic fail.

Ciopi (2012-05-17 21:50)

Good piece of story

I give it a 9, 'cause since Black Hawk Down no war movie was realisticand good enough to keep me focused and interested till the very end !It does have action, suspense and the story could be true indeed...Well, maybe those who love or like wars will re-think their position.Why ? Because people die in vain for no reason, just to feed some chiefin charge's vanity.For a reason I am not fully aware, some things may be brought to thepublic through movies, so take it as it it if you don't want to bother.But if you do, then is it just a movie of an historic event in yourpresent life !

id_unplugged (2012-05-16 05:55)

Movie Based On Half-Truths and Complete Lies

This movie tries to make the case that a handful of middle mgmtmiscreants in the Pentagon, manufactured and fed false intel aboutIraq's abandoned WMD program to senior officials and literally dupedthe Pentagon, the State Dept and the White House... into going to war.What nonsensical revisionist propaganda!Anybody who has even a mild interest in current events would know thatit was "W", Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest of the Neo-Cons whoorchestrated this illegal war and pushed it down the throats of theentire world. In private, Bush & Blair were putting the final toucheson their war plans at Camp David (as Blair has admitted now), when inpublic they were talking about giving UN diplomacy a chance.Starting wars on a ruse is nothing new for the USA. It's greed and lustfor power has led it to crap all over the world. Hitler, Genghis Khanand others are rank amateurs in comparison.If America were still land of the brave and country of laws, notpeople, then George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of the team wouldbe tried as war criminals and hung from the tallest flag pole in D.C.and this film would have the balls to lay the blame, right where itbelongs, instead of giving it away from the Iraqi General'sperspective:"Your govt wanted to hear the lie Mr. Miller. They wanted Saddam outand they did exactly what they had to do. This is why you are here".But I'll take whatever I can. Maybe movie makers in the future willdevelop cojones to tell it like it is, even if it makes us look uglyand barbaric.

joet1999 (2012-05-15 17:22)

Don't Waste Your Evening On This

If I were you, I would not spend my evening watching a film like this,watch a decent war movie. Effectively some U.S army officers arelooking for WMDs and are being mislead. This could have lead to ainteresting and engaging story from the writer of L.A. Confidential butin the end led to a rather boring and pointless movie. Matt Damon'sacting is mediocre and was very average, not a performance to shoutabout by any means. The support acting was much the same and reallydidn't pack much of a punch. Paul Greengrass did direct the film quitewell and this was the one area of the film I was pleased with whilstviewing. I never actually finished the movie because I was so bored andhad better things to do than to watch something that called itself awar movie but was more like one of the superhero movies I hate thatkids generally watch. This film was rated 15 because of a bit ofviolence and some strong language and was rightly rated so but, if youare an adult you might as well watch something that is better that youcan watch whatever because you are an adult. So, to conclude, I wouldtend to recommend to stay away from this film unless you are a supremeMatt Damon fan (which I am certainly not) or a film critic. If you arelooking for a war movie that toughens the balls, watch Downfall, thatis what I call classic cinema and acting.

(2012-05-13 16:20)

A movie on the war in Iraq with a heavy-handed message

The main message of this movie is that the U.S. had no credible basis for fighting in Iraq, especially its supposed reason of finding WMDs. This gripping, action film was directed by Paul Greengrass (the same director of the Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum). Matt Damon plays Chief Roy Miller, the Army warrant officer who leads soldiers in Iraq to find the WMDs, only to find that there are no WMDs. Where are all the WMDS? How reliable are the intel? How come no one is asking the hard questions? Meanwhile, Miller strives to find out the truth and seeks to find General Al-Rawi, the Baathist general working under Saddam -- he's the man who knows where the WMDs are. The U.S. forces, influenced by U.S. policymaker Clark Poundstone, want to find Al-Rawi for a different reason, to assassinate him in order to cover up the truth about the WMDs. Brian Helgeland wrote the script and this movie is based upon the 2006 non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekran. There are 4 main messages presented in this film: 1) The higher ups in determining the policy in Iraq distorted the evidence and lied to the American public. The main bad guy (Clark Poundstone) is played by Greg Kinnear, who represents the U.S. policymakers in the Bush Administration.2) The real reason why the U.S. went to war in Iraq is to get rid of Saddam Hussein3) The U.S. made the fatal blunder of dismantling the Baathist party and the Iraq Army rather than working with them to build a New Iraq4) We aren't in a position to determine what happens in IraqIn relation to the first point, if there were no WMDs in Iraq and it was all a fabrication by the Bush Administration, why was it that President Clinton was also convinced that there were WMDs in Iraq? Was he going by the same faulty intel? To its credit, this film is a gripping war-drama, shot in Paul Greengrass fashion by a lot of hand-held cameras and done in "you are there" documentary style. I felt that the message was pretty heavy-handed. There are no special features in the DVD. I wished that there would be some special features that provide a featurette on the making of the movie and why the movie was made. There was none of that in this DVD. This is one of the reasons why I deleted a star. If you're in the mood for a highly political war drama, then this movie is for you. I felt that the movie "The Hurt Locker" was more effective than this one: the Hurt Locker tried to describe what was happening in Iraq without a heavy-handed message; as such, it allowed the viewers to make their own conclusions about the war in Iraq. This movie beats you over the head with a bat.

(2012-05-13 07:42)

This movie succeeds in producing empathy for Iraq

My wife and I just finished viewing this movie last night. First of all, it was so boring and slow that we had to watch it in 3 different 'sittings' because we fell asleep the first 2 times..... and we both said to each other as we struggled to sit through the last 40 minutes of it: " Gee, I have not wanted to turn off a movie and never watch the rest of it , in a long long time! ". Yes, it is that boring! Now, let me get on to the second complaint - This is pure propaganda to make one feel sorry for the Iraqi people, the poor old Iraqi bald general and his officers! It also is intended to make you HATE the special forces, and most of the other American soldiers and officers... basically , anyone except glorious Matt Damon and his few special follower soldiers. In this movie, Damon runs around apparently with no chain of command ( he doesn't answer to any higher ups for most of the movie ), he even STRIKES one of the special forces guys in the face and there is NOTHING done about it. PLEEEEASE!!!!!!! The movie shows the 'poor helpless" iraqi people that just want water! that is all they want! and the mean old AMERICANS DRIVE RIGHT PAST! This movie is so blatantly anti America that I can hardly type right now I am so angry! SPOILER ALERT: DAMON even causes the DEATH of the main special forces guy by distracting him at the film's end and a iraqi shoots the SF guy dead. The last half hour of this movie has a feel of " gee I hope the mean ole Americans do not catch the good ole Iraqi bald General and his men! " Wow, a Black hawk heli gets shot down by a R P G ? yeah RIIIIGHT, SAM, maybe, but , doubt an RPG would do the job..... and Damon's face is shown as the bird crashes down in flames...... think that was an accident? You can see the look on his face!!!!!=== That scene was there to get the crowd to clap! : " yay , the evil SF crew that is hunting the "propaganda kid"- Damon, just got one of the their evil helis shot down! yay! " I wanted to turn it off again, right then. I even asked the wife - " have you seen enough of this?"I agree with the other reviews on the camera shake. VERY DISTRACTING, in fact, might have been the only thing that kept us awake at all! Avoid this movie at all costs. I am glad i didn't pay ONE PENNY to see it , as my wife paid to rent it. I would have demanded my money back. I wish I had never seen it. In conclusion, Mr. Damon, the next stinker movie you make , I will be here to write another review of it, because I think you like making left wing - anti-American statements in your movies , you America Hater Liberal!!!!!!

Claudio Carvalho (2012-05-09 21:12)

The Truth about WMD

I do not like movies about the invasion of Iraq, and I have neverunderstood how "The Hurt Locker" that was released straight-to-video inBrazil could win an Oscar. However, "Green Zone" blends truth withfiction about the inexistent weapons of massive destruction (WMD) thatwas the justification of the American government to invade thatmillenary country.The excellent Matt Damon is tailored for this type of action movie andperforms the role of a captain of the American army pursuing the truthabout the WMD in Iraq and finds a conspiracy with the involvement of ahigh level Pentagon representative. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Zona Verde" ("Green Zone")

gossamer-6 (2012-05-09 08:08)

Bourne goes epic

'Bourne goes epic' is the summary on the front of my BD. What is anepic? Epic is a story of heroes of ancient times. It has got nothing todo with Green Zone. Green Zone is about killing, and the more themerrier. Mr. Damon does nothing for this film. I sincerely doubt thatanyone could have. It is simply a non starter, a dud. The tirelesschasing of a seemingly dangerous Iraqi, killing countless people in theprocess. One hears about the occasional 'mishap' in Iraq and roadbombings where people are killed or maimed. But nothing on this scale.Is this film really built on actual facts or is it the sick drivel of adriven mind. I'm not sure I care to know. Anyway I'm sorry I bought thedisc. I will probably give it to charity. What a better way to disposeof this fiasco.

dColo (2012-05-09 16:25)

Iraq Gets Turned into a Blockbuster

Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller is posted to Iraq to justify the USinvasion by finding weapons of mass destruction. With his searchproving fruitless, he starts asking tricky questions, and soon even hisown side are out to kill him.Green Zone may have taken a while to get through production, but withTony Blair's Oscar worthy performance at the Chilcot Inquiry, as towhat we were doing in Iraq in the first place, Green Zone isGreengrass' most topical to date.Matt Damon, always a favourite for Greengrass, stars as Miller, puttinghim in kind of a similar position to Jason Bourne. The camera-work isreminiscent of the other most recent Iraqi classic, the Hurt Locker,and the action is superb, refusing to be compromised by the movie'spolitical roots. After all, Green Zone is, first and foremost, anaction blockbuster.Greg Kinnear is deliciously devious as the man with the secret of whatthey're doing over there, Amy Ryan gives a good insight into the falseinformation given to the press, and Brendan Gleeson never fails to betruly likable. In the end, though, this is Matt Damon's movie, andwhile it's no longer about a man trying to find out who he his, GreenZone presents us with a much better concept. This movie is about theconfusion over the reasons for invading Iraq, and the struggle of oneman who just wants a straight answer.9/10 - Must See

PWNYCNY (2012-05-09 01:14)

A war based on a lie? You decide.

This movie is Hollywood's attempt to moralize on the Iraq war and to alarge degree it works. By now it is common knowledge that the pretextused to justify invading Iraq, that Iraq had weapons of massdestruction, was a fabrication. The questions is, what is a soldiersupposed to do when he discovers that his mission is based on a lie?That is the crux of this movie and Matt Damon gives a strongperformance as a soldier who decides not be part of a cover up. Themovie makes one really wonder why the U. S. bothered to invade Iraq, acountry completely divided along sectarian lines and in total disarrayand why the Iraqi army was disbanded. After all, the army was the onlyinstitution in the country that could hold the country together, yet itwas dissolved, resulting in chaos that continues to this day. GregKinnear plays an uncharacteristically sinister role as an Americandiplomat who chooses expediency over truth and the other supportingactors give excellent performances that help make this movie not only awork of art but statement about truth and honor in time of war.