Green Zone

What happens when you mix a shaky camera with military conspiracy themes and horrible close-in action scenes? You get Green Zone, a movie set in Iraq starring Matt Damon – which is ironic since it looks very much like every other movie he has starred in the last 5 years. Maybe it’s the horribly shot action scenes, or it’s the overly intense thing he does with his eyes when he delivers “the line”, whatever it is -  it all rings familiar and no matter how much anti-Bush, anti-war subject matter you throw at this thing, it still stinks. This movie is pure propaganda plain and simple, as a lover of good writing and thought provoking material, I left the theater feeling empty, used and confused. Yes there were no WMDs in Iraq, yes the war was fabricated, but did we need a movie in 2010 to drive these points home? I didn’t.

What the hell did I just see – did an Army officer just drop his duties to play detective and run free all over Iraq to uncover his country’s secrets? Is that even plausible? Judging from the military guys in the row below mine twisting and maneuvering uncomfortably at the unreal depictions of things done by Damon, I’m gonna go ahead and say nay. This movie wasn’t aimed at realism or entertainment; it was aimed at driving a point home. I wished I had stayed at the restaurant to finish my spaghetti and meatballs; this wasn’t worth 2 hours of my life. Look I know Matt Damon is a smart guy who is more than outspoken politically about his liberal views. Seeing him call out Sarah Palin was hilarious and we all know his stance on the Bush administration along with a whole host of personal things that he has voiced. Still as an actor I think he deserves smarter movies than this, they could have done this so much better but it was bad, very bad.

Director Paul Greengrass and the shaky cam fetish must end – look Paul, your movies are decent but they have the crappiest fight scenes (as If the camera was planted on his hip during filming), they make me have motion sickness and contrary to what you think they do not feel real. Shaking a camera does not make things any more real than keeping the damn thing still, documentaries feel real and I have yet to watch one with a shaky camera effect going on, please can we tone it down? The other Greengrass/Damon movie that annoyed me was Bourne Supremacy and it above all the rest had the worst camera work I had ever seen in an action movie. Can someone pull Greengrass to the side and holler at him about this? Are there actually people out there who like that camera effect on everything?

Look if you love war movies with a good plot, action and direction, then stay away from this. Last year a very good movie on Iraq and the war effort was made called The Hurt Locker, actually it just swept the Oscars. If you like conspiracy theories and have not sobered over the f-ck Bush sentiment of the early 2000’s then this movie will warm your heart. There are lots of injured soldiers and aimless Iraqi people running about looting, along with evil American brass faking papers to permit the senseless slaughter. It has Greg Kinnear playing an asshole… again, a noble Iraqi affectionately named Freddy (Khalid Abdalla) who brings some humanity and familiarity to the people and of course Matt Damon as Miller, the grunt with a heart of gold. Give me a break, please avoid this movie like the plague people.

Written by Greg Dragon – who has written 365 reviews on Spicy Movie Dogs.

Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.