Green Zone

Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, who previously collaborated on two of the Bourne films, aim to achieve the same sort of visceral excitement in a real-world setting. Inspired by Rajiv Chandrasekaran's nonfiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, the film is set in Baghdad shortly after the 2003 invasion, where faulty intelligence about weapons of mass destruction is at the center of a labyrinthine plot concerning official misconduct in fabricating a justification for the war. Damon plays Roy Miller, who leads a squad of soldiers assigned to find the dreaded WMDs, but when all of the locations they search turn out to be dead ends, Roy begins to suspect that the information they're working from is flawed and joins gruff CIA bureau chief Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) to track down a fugitive Iraqi general who can tell them the truth about Saddam's arms stashes. That course brings them up against the White House's point man in Iraq, Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear), who tries to derail their search for reasons of his own. While a long Bourne-style chase scene falls a bit short, part of Green Zone's attraction lies in trying to link the characters to their possible historical counterparts. But you don't have to be a political junkie to appreciate it simply as a rousing action thriller that delivers a solid adrenaline rush. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon, an “Inside the Green Zone” behind-the-scenes featurette (9 min.), deleted scenes with optional commentary (13 min.), a “Matt Damon: Ready for Action” training featurette (10 min.), and trailers. Blu-ray extras include a video commentary with Greengrass and Damon, picture-in-picture behind-the-scenes footage, the BD-Live function, and a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an interesting contemporary thriller.] (F. Swietek)