with big issues in a big way.As another IMDBer noted the trailer makes it look like a Bourne rip-off. The only thing it shares with Bourne is the adrenaline rush those movies gave you including Liman's excellent 1st Bourne . If Greengrass has a weakness it might be that he cannot resist making your pulse race.This is a very political & complex thriller. FOX news fans stay away --your time is better spent watching Beck's home webcam. It wears it heart on its sleeve & makes no apologies for the stance it takes.Matt Damon leads a very impressive cast of actors. He IS NOT Bourne here. It is a delight to see Brendan Gleeson & Amy Ryan here too & Greg Kinnear wears his reptile skin very well. Everybody seems to be underplaying things a bit to great effect. There are other actors from Greengrass's earlier films you may recognize including a cameo by a key player from what I think is Greengrass's best film "United 93".The Greengrass team is at the top their game AGAIN, but I am so sick of people whining about the camera work in his films. It is edge-of-your-seat 1st person POV cinema --but then again I like to ski downhill really really fast too.Ineviteably you can't help but to compare this movie to "The Hurt Locker" which I also loved . This film is much bigger in scale, much more political THL was almost totally devoid of politics , much less straight forward although it doesn't have the open ending of the Oscar winner & lacks the 1 signature iconic performance of the prior movie.

brilliant performance and Greengrass's direction will leave you satisfied, and the critics confounded. Do truth a favour, watch Damon's amazing performance in the Green Zone this weekend.

plot twisting isn't easily done, but Greengrass pulls it off brilliantly. The balance between part political thriller and upfront action extravaganza are also perfectly performed, giving the film room to breath when the action takes a break.

destruction in post-invasion Baghdad. Much of the ensuing shenanigans are inspired by the findings of both the Iraq Intelligence Commission Report and the UK's Butler Review, which in 2004 found that pre-war intelligence had been highly suspect.I say 'inspired' because 'Green Zone' is fiction—unless I blinked and missed it, there's no opening title card claiming "based on a true story". Conservatives, so often unable to discern fact from fiction, will view the film as a piece of docudrama reportage and find it deeply flawed, as it would be if it purported to be such a thing. The rest of us will recognize that Greengrass has crafted an excellent conspiracy thriller that simply uses the controversial politics of post-war Iraq as background color, and does so very well. As is to be expected from a director who, at this point in his career, can do this stuff in his sleep, the action sequences are brilliantly choreographed, the tension masterfully built, and the characters multi-layered. The cinematography that others have called "ugly" I found added a sense of realism, particularly in the grainy night scenes. My only complaint is a couple of instances in which Iraqi characters begin spouting embarrassing soap-box polemic. It isn't that such thoughts are out of character, just the way they are expressed; the dialogue being too obvious and cheesy. Thankfully, such moments can be counted in seconds rather than minutes. What's so impressive about 'Green Zone' is the seemingly authentic locations. It really does look as though it were filmed in Baghdad. Instead, it was shot on location in England and Spain. A production designer hasn't worked such magic since 'Full Metal Jacket' converted a London parking lot into the battlefields of Vietnam.'Green Zone' is an excellent movie that will be thoroughly enjoyed by fans of political conspiracy thrillers. It isn't presented as factual, and only fools would look to a movie for facts. For facts, read books or, better yet, read the Iraq Intelligence Commission Report and the Butler Review. But don't blame Paul Greengrass for your laziness and stupidity in mistaking his excellent movie for a representation of 'truth'.

support to the movie one of the greatest advantages of the movie. Great effects, great editing, great sound.This movie in general is a 9.7 i rounded to the nearest number so i will give it a 10, thats a green light to this movie, you must see it because with Greengrass in the helm will be a very good movie.

Poundstone Greg Kinnear , Miller soon must go off the grid in order to find "Magellan", an Iraqi official who may or may not be providing false intelligence. Amy Ryan also shows up as a journalist in Judith Miller clothing. Lensed by the always hyperactive Greengrasss, "Green Zone" is a raw and breathlessly plotted thriller that captures the chaos on the ground, the intensity of every mission, and the suspense waiting in every Baghdad back-alley, bunker, etc. The action is immensely entertaining, especially the final nail-biting fire-fight. Of course we know about the WMD's now but Brian Helgeland's screenplay is still loaded with intriguing Iraqi politics, and questions about responsible journalism and governmental deception that still resonate today. Matt Damon again proves himself a bourne action hero and he anchors the movie with a determined and intelligent performance. Kinnear, as the slick politician who won't let anything interfere with bringing change to Iraq, and Gleeson, as the gruff CIA chief who thinks this change stuff is a bunch of crap, are both terrific. Khallid Abdalla also turns in strong work as an Iraqi citizen eager to do what's right for his country. "Green Zone" is first a great action flick, but with a strong story to boot.

unit leader Roy Miller, as is Brendan Gleeson as the CIA man and Greg Kinnear is refreshingly nasty as Poundstone from the Pentagon - all turn in good performances. Shot on location in Morocco, Spain and in England I could have sworn we were in Bagdad the whole time - settings are very convincing. Yes, there is too much hand- held camera movement that quickly brought on discomfort followed by a headache but that is my only negative and as the film doesn't outstay its welcome I'm willing to concede the shakiness probably lends an 'embedded' realism. Is any of the plot or characters based on real events or people? I have no idea other than learning the film is based on the 2006 non-fiction book 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City' by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a journalist for The Washington Post. I haven't read the book so I can't comment on how closely the film follows it. I spent a few moments of the film wondering about the story's authenticity but as a piece of cinema entertainment in its own right Green Zone gets the green light from me.

soldier, as long as he knows that there are clear moral reasons behind what he's been ordered to do. Unfortunately, during the early days of the Iraq War, clear moral reasons were in very short supply, and Damon's character battles an array of competing military and political agendas as he searches for the truth behind the military's search for the ever-elusive Weapons of Mass Destruction rumored to be hidden in Iraq. This film is so well done, and Damon is so good in it, that I'm starting to consider the Greengrass/Damon tandem on a par with the Scorsese/DeNiro and Scorsese/DiCaprio pairings. Damon's best work the last two Bourne films and this one has come with Greengrass at the helm—here's to hoping they make many more fine films together.

taking a punt, I saw the movie armed with this new information. It's actually good...not depressing like movies with this type of theme can be. Not sure how much reality there is to it...it seems to cover the bases on the reasons given as to why the US invaded Iraq and the underlying reality on the ground.What's particularly interesting is how the Pentagon and the C.I.A. are depicted. No doubt there are numerous American movies where both organisations are depicted as suspect or evil. Here, one organisation comes off as acting in good faith and acting morally. Don't know enough about the war to say for certain if any US organisation can claim to have acted ethically, but this dichotomy is illuminating for the factoids it throws at the audience.If the movie does have a lot factual truth to it, then some of the events in it are truly disturbing...e.g. how the U.S. deals with people who may be able to disprove the official government line on the reasons for the war. Maybe this is just artistic license, or perhaps it's real politic as far as the U.S. goes...and anyone who has read Noam Chomsky knows that the U.S. goes all the way.I'm reminded of General Colin Powell's hand-on-the-heart moment in the U.N. where he showed satellite photos of vehicles and swore that these were mobile weapons of mass destruction delivery vehicles. Turns out that they were milk trucks...like the Iraqis said they were. It's this 'evidence' which convinced a reluctant U.N. to take the US' assertions as true and to authorise the invasion of Iraq. This movie's trailer is like General Colin Powell's moment of infamy...the trailer bears no relation to what you actually see. But it's more compelling than what the general's photo turned out to be.Matt Damon as Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller makes for a good lantern-jaw type hero...if such a figure actually exists, you'd think they would have have been run out of the ranks for not towing the official line. Anyway, the movie is about Miller's role in finding those elusive weapons of mass destruction that President Bush assured us were there. When he doesn't have much luck finding them, he wants to find out why...