GREEN ZONE

GREEN ZONE

There is a scene when, after glancing over a report on WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) in Iraq, Greg Kinnear's character, Clark Poundstound, pretty much says "So what... no one cares!"

That sums up Matt Damon's latest film "Green Zone". You finish the film mumbling to yourself..."Who cares"?

Though it has a fair amount of action it doesn't shine any new light on the War in Iraq.

"The Hurt Locker" did a marvelous job taking the politics and editorial comments out of Hollywood's feelings about the Iraq invasion. There were at least a dozen or so films over the last three years that address that feeling. "Rendition", "Lions for Lambs" and others expressed everyone's distaste for the war. They also failed to make any money. "The Hurt Locker" was simply a war movie set in the Mid East... and it was great!

"Green Zone" doesn't emulate "Hurt Locker", it instead is a two hour editorial comment on the the Iraq invasion. It poorly examines the search fro the WMDs.

In the end, it offers nothing new. So who cares? It really is time to move on.

Matt Damon stars as Miller, a specialized soldier whose team is in charge of locating WMDs in Iraq to justify the invasion. He and his team go from one site to the other searching and constantly come up empty. He blames the intelligence from a dubious and mysterious informant named Magellan.

When he brings up the matter, he is quickly scolded and told he can't find stuff because his team is inadequate; He should work harder and stop complaining about intel!

He finally gets involved with a CIA operative named Martin Brown (Brendab Gleeson)and a Wall Street Journal writer (Amy Ryan) who encourage him to follow his gut feeling that the war is all a sham to depose Saddam. His investigation leads right to the person giving the intel out...Miller.

It seems Miller has fabricated Magellan and fabricated all the intel. He has lied to and is in fact using one of the former Republican Guards higher ups as a scapegoat.

So we are taken on another cat and mouse ride. A few people are whacked and Damon gets into at least two hand-to-hand combats. But it is seriously lacking in the "Bourne Ultimatum" pacing. We'd like to see more fighting, even if it's fake.

We don't need another editorial comment for a movie that has us questioning, "Who cares?".

I can't wait til Quentin Tarantino does his take on the Iraq War with a fictionalized story. Or maybe Tim Burton. Or maybe Francis Ford Coppola will come out of retirement and do "Apocalypse Now: Iraq". Anything but another editorial comment on the Iraq invasion. --GEOFFREY BURTON

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