Green Zone Review

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Green Zone 

Roy Miller (Matt Damon) is a squad leader charged with being the team that goes to the suspected WMD sites during the Iraq conflict.  Arriving at several of these sites and findng that they are empty and look like they have never been used for the supposed sites he starts to get increasingly frustrated with the intel his team is receiving as he believes that it is completely wrong.

At one of the sites in a playground in the middle of a town one of the locals comes forward and informs Roy that there is a meeting going on jjust down the road with some high level Iraqi officials.  Roy takes the chance on the news and storms the house.  They capture several Iraqis but Ayad Hamza or as he is more commonly known to the US troops the Jack of Clubs (The most wanted appeared on a deck of playing cards during the conflict which were handed out to the groud troops so they would know if they came across any of them) but he manages to escape.  When bringing back the prisoners they are hijacked by a US special forces team and taken off their hands.

Even more frustrated Niller managed to hide a diary that  one of the prisoners had which reveals all of the safe houses for Ayad Hamza’s people.   Miller realising not is all that is seems is approached by a member of the CIA who confirms Millers thoughts.  Now working alongside the CIA it’s a race against time as the Special forces seek to ‘keep quiet’ any chance of the secrets that they hold getting out and wiping out any chance of getting the truth  out there.

With the whole of the team that brought us the Bourne movies you know you are dealing with a high quality level of film making here.  The setting and cinematography makes Iraq look vast and labrynthian at the same time and beautiful despite the destruction that has raged during the conflict.  The action sequences are handled effectively with enough crash bang wallop added in to keep you glued to the mystery that unfolds before your eyes. 

The cast are solid with Damon looking especially comfortable in the lead role, which since Bourne seems to be able to just drop into.  Unfortunately we don’t get to see nearly enough of Jason Issacs as Briggs the leader of the special forces team and his fantastic moustache.

The Green Zone at times is electrifying with bullets wizzing and Miller trying to just reveal the truth and prove that there is more going on here than just a simple search for WMDs.  We all now know the truth about what really happened and you just can’t help thinking how much of this film is based on fact?  A solid thriller with heavy doses of action.  For anyone who liked the Bourne films or a decent War film then this is for you.

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