'Green Zone'

'Green Zone' (R) ***

Writer: Brian Helgeland
Director: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Jason Isaacs, Khaild Abdalla

"Green Zone" is basically just a good and solid action movie with another great Matt Damon performance. To enjoy this you just have to forget the political story and get wrapped up in the Damon character who becomes an outstanding hero. The movie is basically set in Iraq as Damon plays an Army warrant officer looking for WMD's. The movie gets a little convoluted and I thought the story was feeble but the action is very well captured. That is because Damon has hooked back up with director Paul Greengrass who directed "United 93" and the second and third Bourne movies. Greengrass is an expert at finely crafted shootouts, chases and the art of the shaky hand held camera. That hand held camera thing is usually annoying in movies but here I thought it was minimal and good. Damon is one of our finest actors and here he makes it look effortless. You don't catch him acting and because you like him here as you always do he makes a hero you want to root for. Greengrass did much better with the second Bourne movie and "United 93" but here he makes a standard story into something exciting. Amy Ryan, Brendan Gleeson and Greg Kinnear are good here but Ryan is wasted and Kinnear's villain is sometimes a cartoon villain and sometimes not evil enough. "Green Zone" isn't a great movie but it goes by super fast and it gets the job done well enough.