So
when local resident "Freddy" (Khalid Abdalla) says he saw a bunch of
Iraq generals holding a secret meeting in a house in the next suburb
over, Miller decides that it’s his big chance to get some real WMD
information direct from the source. He
manages to get the information even as the general gets away, but he
also gets into a world of trouble as Pentagon suit Clark Poundstone
(Greg Kinnear) and CIA agent Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) decide that
they can both use him to push their own agendas. Brown
thinks that keeping the Iraqi army together will help hold the
crumbling country together; Poundstone is a neo‑con who thinks that
democracy- and disbanding the army as soon as possible - will make Iraq
into America Jr. Miller ends up siding with Brown (which we know is a
bad move, as the Iraq army was disbanded soon after the invasion) and
it starts to become obvious that, for all the wonder of this films
extremely impressive re‑creation of Baghdad circa 2003, we’re basically
watching a remake of Chinatown. As
in all good noir mysteries, our lead is a hardboiled hero trying to
uncover the truth, while everyone he thought he could trust turns out
to want the truth covered up, and there’s a sense of doom hanging over
the place that makes it clear that there's no happy ending in sight
even if he does solve the mystery of the WMDs – it’s Iraq circa 2003,
the only way things can go is down. As seen
from his excellent work directing the last two Bourne films, Paul Greengrass definitely knows how to
put together scene after scene of exciting action. The
fights here are way more realistic than anything Jason Bourne dished
out, but they retain an impact that keep this film on the edge. Using
real life events as plot devices in a thriller is a risky move,
especially when they took place not so long ago, but here it pays
off. Whatever your views on the war in
Iraq, Green Zone is a gripping
thriller that – the occasional flat moment aside – provides thrills from
start to finish. DVD Special Features
More of the same here - Commentaries, Featurettes and Deleted
Scenes. All the different kinds of extras that most punters will never
watch more than once... if at all.
Conclusion:
Movie 80% Extras: 50%
|
