A disgraceful flick

The Iraq war is arguably one of the most defining moments of the last 10 years, so it comes as little surprise that it is now the topic of choice for any director that wants to grab the attention of the media.

Controversy here we come! This war drama is, in my opinion, nothing short of a disgrace. It's no secret to my friends that I have a profound dislike of Matt Damon, I think that his performances are often wooden and his acting ability has the same range as a cheap water pistol.

I also have a strong aversion to the conflict in Iraq and in light of all the massive mistakes and errors in judgment that have been made, I was looking forward to perhaps seeing a film that would reflect that ... I'm still waiting!

Here we have yet another example of what happens when you take a controversial subject and shine the bright glaring lights of Hollywood on it. Yes, there have been some great war movies that stay true to the dark subject matter while still managing to entertain or inform. However, the Green Zone is no Hurt Locker, it's not even Saving Private Ryan, it's simply an offensive representation of a disturbing display of incompetence.

The film is set in 2003 at the beginning of the second Iraq war and Damon plays Roy Miller, head of a Weapons of Mass Destruction-finding unit in Baghdad which keeps coming up empty at all the alleged sites ... so far it's totally accurate to real life.

Miller believes that he is receiving bad information from the big dogs in charge and decides to go maverick and trace their original source, raising eyebrows and fighting the system ... again, not entirely untrue in regard to the handling of the Iraq war.

With all we retrospectively know about the whoppers we were told to make the case for war, it's a kick to follow a main character on the ground who smells a rat this early, wary of the stalling tactics the Pentagon are offering instead of conclusive proof.

Miller becomes frustrated with the bad intelligence he's receiving from bureaucrat Clark Poundstone and his top-secret source, and unsurprisingly he's not the only one getting frustrated with the lack of answers. He enlists the help of a source in the CIA and a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, then heads off to hunt down General Al Rawi and maybe, you know, save the nation of Iraq along the way.

Knowing full well what happened in Iraq (or, rather, what didn't), and knowing full well that the audience is equally aware, Green Zone still manages to end with a happy little lie that the audience just paid to see, as opposed to the massive lie that the world is still paying for.