GREEN ZONE
RYAN: Green Zone re-teams Matt Damon with director Paul Greengrass who did two of the Bourne movies.
CAROLINE: It’s a strong partnership, and one that I expect a lot from. Howe’er, we knew going in that this movie was supposed to come out last year and was delayed, so I lowered my expectations. And I’m glad I did.
RYAN: LBH, we were both completely checked out during this movie. We might as well have been doing each other’s nails.
CAROLINE: I just couldn’t get into it. It’s yet another topical and timely Iraq War film, and it basically feels like a re-enactment of real events.
RYAN: We attended the screening for this movie the day after The Hurt Locker won Best Picture, so you can’t help but compare the two. Even though Green Zone seemed to have a bigger budget and has a much more famous cast, it’s not nearly as good.
CAROLINE: They even take place during the same time period. I didn’t love The Hurt Locker, but I’d definitely recommend it over this.
RYAN: I just can’t take another war movie right now. And it’s shot in the same shaky verité style that we’ve seen many times before.
CAROLINE: Sometimes it’s cool, but there were parts of this movie that I couldn’t even see the action because the camera was so shaky.
RYAN: I was nauseous at the beginning.
CAROLINE: I loved The Bourne Ultimatum so much, and I know it’s got a very different topic, but I just can’t believe it came from the same director. I just expected a better movie here. Maybe the script is part of the problem.
RYAN: We didn’t learn anything new in this movie. It’s just a re-hashing of real events. And it was oddly confusing at times. I had to think so hard about what was going on at times that my head hurt.
CAROLINE: It was just kind of dull. It does have a good cast though – Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear…
RYAN: Not to mention Lucius Malfoy and Mad-Eye Moody from the Harry Potter films.
CAROLINE: I know that made your day.
RYAN: It really did. And they both do terrific American accents. Lucius Malfoy a.k.a. Jason Isaacs’s accent is so good that I almost thought someone was dubbing his lines.
CAROLINE: I find him kind of sexy. But I could totally hear the Irish brogue coming out in Mad-Eye Moody’s voice. His American accent isn’t as strong.
— BOTTOM LINE —
RYAN: I teetered back and forth between being interested in this movie and being totally disengaged. War movies rank about as high on my list as kids’ movies do for you. I want to swear off movies of this genre but this one has a big cast and is pop culture worthy, so I had to see it. But it’s really not a must-see in the theater. If you’re in the mood for something like this, just rent The Hurt Locker.
CAROLINE: Totally. Though I enjoy Matt Damon and he’s good in just about everything he does, I couldn’t get excited about this movie. He plays an Army chief who goes rogue to find out the truth about WMDs in Iraq; but it takes place in 2004 and we all know how everything turned out. There was no build up. Frankly, I was bored.
— RATING —
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