Because "The Hurt Locker," the best movie about the Iraq War so far, won several Oscars just a few days ago, releasing "Green Zone," another movie about the war - and an inferior one at that - seems pointless. But hey, this Iraq War movie is a big-budgeted action thriller starring Matt Damon. Is anyone really planning to watch this just to see how it stacks up against "Locker"?
In "Green Zone," Damon and Paul Greengrass, director of the two "Bourne" sequels, team up again to take us back to 2003, when the U.S. went into Baghdad to track down weapons of mass destruction. That's what Damon's chief warrant officer Roy Miller thinks he's there for. But he soon grows tired of leading his men through sniper fire to get to one empty WMD site after another. It doesn't take long for Damon's suspicious soldier to realize there's some sheisty stuff going on, as he finds he can get better intel from an Iraqi off the street than from his own superiors.
The thing that made "Locker" such a smart, impressive film - its refusal to pick political sides - "Zone" practically revels in. Right from the jump, "Zone" wears its left-wing agenda with pride, making the story (based on Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" and scripted by "L.A. Confidential" screenwriter Brian Helgeland) less like an intense action pic and more like a preachy message flick with gunplay and shaky camera work.
Despite the movie's attempts to show how gray areas pop up during wartime more than IED explosions, it routinely sets up who the good guys and the bad guys are. It gives us a shady villain in the form of a Paul Bremer-esque intelligence man (Greg Kinnear) who tries to keep our boy Miller in the dark about the "Magellan" source (it's funny seeing Damon and Kinnear not literally joined at the hip on-screen, as they were when they played conjoined twins in the Farrelly brothers comedy "Stuck on You"). A gruff CIA vet (gruff Brendan Gleeson) helps our hero see the light.
There are even good-guy/bad-guy Iraqis, as Miller is aided by a proud, one-legged Iraqi (Khalid Abdalla, one of the 9/11 hijackers from Greengrass' "United 93") who tips off Miller on the whereabouts of one of Saddam's top aides. The movie even takes time out to wag a finger at American journalists who went along with the bull, as a Wall Street Journal reporter (Amy Ryan) blindly reports whatever top-secret material that's given to her, until Miller sets her straight.
The movie's annoyingly liberal, overly clichéd self-righteousness may turn off those who just want to see Damon kick tail and blow people away. It seems as if he and Greengrass remember that as the movie turns out a rock 'em-sock 'em climax complete with helicopters, open fire and foot chases. But unfortunately, when the firing ceases and the chases stop, it gets back to hammering its Bush-did-us-and-them-wrong message. (Thanks guys, but you're kinda preaching to the choir now!)
"Zone" seems especially needless because Damon and Greengrass took on the perceived lies and corruption of our last administration with the last Jason Bourne installment, "The Bourne Ultimatum." Making a movie about how much of a sham the U.S. occupation in Iraq is feels like overkill.
In "Green Zone," the mission isn't accomplished - in more ways than one.
