"Green Zone" falls well short of its potential
Green Zone Opens today at Quality 16, Showcase, Brighton Review by Jeff Meyers of the Metro Times Grade: C+
Matt Damon in "Green Zone"
Five years ago — with a tighter, more paranoid script and better-drawn hero — Paul Greengrass' "Green Zone" could have really been a contender. With its Bush-War shadiness, convincing on-the-ground Iraq setting, truth-seeking hero and "Call of Duty"-style pyrotechnics, the movie has good bones. Unfortunately, as delivered, it all adds up to little more than a liberal filmmaker's adrenalized but mediocre answer to the vigilante righteousness Peter Berg's more conservatively minded "The Kingdom." Think of it as popcorn and popgun politics.
Teaming up again with his Bourne series star, Matt Damon, Greengrass tries to graft a '70s-style conspiracy thriller onto a breakneck action flick while critiquing the incompetence and corruption of Bush's policies in Iraq. It doesn't work.