Greenzone

Based off of the novel, The Emerald City, Greenzone chronicles the accounts of Chief Miller, played by Matt Damon, and his journey to discovery the truth during the second Iraq War. After yet another failed mission to uncover WMD's, Chief Miller begins to question the validity of the Intel they are receiving regarding the locations of WMD's. As Chief Miller gets closer to the truth, he finds answers that the truth is far worse than he thought.

Matt Damon's performance in Greenzone is as straight forward as you can get. Not that he is just mailing it in to collect a paycheck, but rather just nothing special. Chief Miller seems very similar to Damon’s portrayal of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity, merely as a soldier rather than spy. The same thing can be said about Greg Kinnear as the slime government official who orchestrated the whole war. Kinnear and Damon are better actors than this film allows them to be. The story just isn't that good.

My main issue with this film is its cinematography. I really do enjoy the work that Micheal Mann has done; however, the style of filmmaking he has developed in films like Man on Fire and Miami Vice is ruining action movies. The last 20 minutes of Greenzone looks like it was shot using night vision goggles. I have invested a great deal of time and money in my high definition home theater set up to see it deemed completely useless for action films shot like this.

Greenzone is based off of a true story, but it is a story that American’s already understand or will choose to never believe anyway. There just really isn't anything here to make it worth more than a rental.

My Rating: 2 out of 5