Hitting shelves Tues., June 22 is Paul Greengrass' Green Zone, starring Matt Damon as an Army officer hunting WMD during the early days of the 2003 Iraq war. Green Zone didn't do all that well at the box office (people just don't like war movies about Iraq, I guess), which means you probably haven't seen it and are are wondering if it's worth picking up. Don't be dissuaded by a plot that revolves around combing the desert for unfindable weapons; Green Zone turns out to be a surprisingly watchable action flick.
CL's Joe Bardi reviewed the film upon it's theatrical release and had some interesting comments, saying it delivers the "greatest hits" of the most infamous moments of the war, and that the filmmakers were clever in how they took images broadcast on TV during the conflict and set their action among the digitally reconstructed chaos. I agreed with Bardi that the movie is entertaining, and I wholeheartedly concur that Matt Damon is in top form here. The actor, who is on screen for basically the entire film, clearly put the time into getting his character right, and from the way he holds his gun to how he walks and talks, Damon never hits a off note with his performance. Without Damon holding down the center, it's easy to picture Green Zone's mix of very real geopolitics and popcorn-movie showmanship falling awfully flat.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.