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Blue Meanie Strays Into The GREEN ZONE!!
Merrick here...
...with a look at GREEN ZONE from Blue Meanie, who is evidently a MODERN WARFARE 2 player like myself. Know that there are MINOR SPOILERS here. Nothing too inflammatory I believe, but more a reference to the film's overall structure.
Here's Blue Meanie...
It all began some time ago when the film was announced, as an
adaptation of Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Imperial Life in the Emerald
City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone". Paul Greengrass has been knocking it
out of the park in my book, so when I passed the book while waiting in
a store line, I picked it up and thumbed through. It happened to be
signed by the author...this was a sign.
I'm torn up by this film, as there's a ton of amazing, visceral
action/tension but it gets undermined by the bummer that is our
reality. This is a very loose adaptation of a very small part of the
book, mainly hitting two key moments: the critical decision to
dissolve the Iraqi armed forces and the transparent move to install a
30 year exile as the new leader of a democratic Iraq. Everything else
feels as though it is trying to generate suspense out of a big reveal,
one anyone who has to read or watched the news would have heard about.
Will Matt Damon find WMDs in Iraq? Is he gonna go all Black Dynamite
on those responsible for such a scheme; taking all the way to the top,
and make things right in Iraq before the country tears itself apart?
SPOILER:
No. It's Chinatown.
Now, that said, the film excels at making this a frantic, deeply FUBAR
situation that just keeps getting worse. The film opens with the
bombing of Iraq (from the POV of the Iraqi General's staff), which was
a good way to ease the audience into Greengrass' You-Are-There camera
style that some people hate. It's followed up a few weeks later with
the intro of Damon's character dealing with a rapidly deteriorating
situation: he's got to search a potential WMD site that is in
mid-looting with a sniper somewhere on the site. It's righteous in its
intensity.
Frustrated with the intel, he starts rocking the boat, attracting the
attention of a like minded CIA guy Brendan Gleeson and journalist Amy
Ryan, who made the case for the war in her articles based on intel
that even she can't ignore anymore. There's a little more story to it
than that, but ultimately it comes down to three sides, those who used
the false intel now want to cover their own asses, Damon just wants
answers before they are snuffed out, and the former Iraqi military
forces who think if things get bad enough they'll get an offer to
run/control things (assuming they survive long enough). This chase for
the source of the intel leads to a textbook definition of a
Clusterfuck as everyone starts running head-on into their opposing
side. Great chaotic stuff that to the director and editor's credit
never got confusing.
There's all kinds of things that I liked, such as the country music
echoing in the interrogation center, the khaki party look to the Green
Zone area (which might as well be Mars for Damon and his squadmates).
The casualness of how Gleeson handles a million dollars in a bag. The
Pizza Hut logo on boxes at the severely bombed out (but functional)
airport. The reluctant translator. Jason Isaacs' scarily effective
Special Forces guy (a man tough enough to make a handlebar mustache
work). John Powell's driving score ratcheting up the possibility of
violence around every corner and window.
To recap: a weak resolution doesn't hinder some of the most intense
firefights this side of Black Hawk Down. Great job by everyone
involved.
Thanks,
Blue Meanie
GREEN ZONE will arrive next week.
adaptation of Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Imperial Life in the Emerald
City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone". Paul Greengrass has been knocking it
out of the park in my book, so when I passed the book while waiting in
a store line, I picked it up and thumbed through. It happened to be
signed by the author...this was a sign.
I'm torn up by this film, as there's a ton of amazing, visceral
action/tension but it gets undermined by the bummer that is our
reality. This is a very loose adaptation of a very small part of the
book, mainly hitting two key moments: the critical decision to
dissolve the Iraqi armed forces and the transparent move to install a
30 year exile as the new leader of a democratic Iraq. Everything else
feels as though it is trying to generate suspense out of a big reveal,
one anyone who has to read or watched the news would have heard about.
Will Matt Damon find WMDs in Iraq? Is he gonna go all Black Dynamite
on those responsible for such a scheme; taking all the way to the top,
and make things right in Iraq before the country tears itself apart?
SPOILER:
No. It's Chinatown.
Now, that said, the film excels at making this a frantic, deeply FUBAR
situation that just keeps getting worse. The film opens with the
bombing of Iraq (from the POV of the Iraqi General's staff), which was
a good way to ease the audience into Greengrass' You-Are-There camera
style that some people hate. It's followed up a few weeks later with
the intro of Damon's character dealing with a rapidly deteriorating
situation: he's got to search a potential WMD site that is in
mid-looting with a sniper somewhere on the site. It's righteous in its
intensity.
Frustrated with the intel, he starts rocking the boat, attracting the
attention of a like minded CIA guy Brendan Gleeson and journalist Amy
Ryan, who made the case for the war in her articles based on intel
that even she can't ignore anymore. There's a little more story to it
than that, but ultimately it comes down to three sides, those who used
the false intel now want to cover their own asses, Damon just wants
answers before they are snuffed out, and the former Iraqi military
forces who think if things get bad enough they'll get an offer to
run/control things (assuming they survive long enough). This chase for
the source of the intel leads to a textbook definition of a
Clusterfuck as everyone starts running head-on into their opposing
side. Great chaotic stuff that to the director and editor's credit
never got confusing.
There's all kinds of things that I liked, such as the country music
echoing in the interrogation center, the khaki party look to the Green
Zone area (which might as well be Mars for Damon and his squadmates).
The casualness of how Gleeson handles a million dollars in a bag. The
Pizza Hut logo on boxes at the severely bombed out (but functional)
airport. The reluctant translator. Jason Isaacs' scarily effective
Special Forces guy (a man tough enough to make a handlebar mustache
work). John Powell's driving score ratcheting up the possibility of
violence around every corner and window.
To recap: a weak resolution doesn't hinder some of the most intense
firefights this side of Black Hawk Down. Great job by everyone
involved.
Thanks,
Blue Meanie
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+ Expand All
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BOURNE 4. Looks alright. I guess.
-
I trust Greengrass to entertain me.But, it also looks a bit hackneyed and the perhaps the relevancy of attacking of the Bush Era is already stale materiel.Still, considering it has Damon and Greengrass is the tipping point for me to see it.
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...BURNT UMBER ZONE, OR TITANIUM WHITE ZONE or something.
-
Cigarettes are baaad. Drugs are baaad. Mmmm-kay?
-
And this movie looks tired. Greengrass' style of filmaking is hit and miss at best.
I have no desire to watch movies about wars that are still going on. Kinda hard to get any perspective as a viewer. -
The trailer from Green Zone kept screaming "Bourne" based on the style of shots, the fonts used, etc. I just sat there frustrated thinking "it's not Bourne 4... lame."
As to Black Dynamite, just saw the trailer for that on my Moon DVD. Hilarious stuff. -
Nice.
-
Another Iraq movie. Another one to skip.
-
Greengrass is a fucking assault on all things concerning equilibrium.
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of Greengrass's camera movement. Can't tell what is going on anymore. It's an old trick that needs to retire.
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Yeah, just watched the same trailer on MOON last night. Me & the girlie rewatched it, that is some funny shit. Can't wait to get it on DVD.
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Except I don't mid it when it's done by Greengrass, I just recently rewatchedte Bourne movies and I still think all three are great, and enjoyed the visceral intense feel of Greengrass's latter two entries. But he definitely started a trend that most filmmakers misunderstand and use to make action scenes frustratingly incomprehensible (I'm looking at you Quantum of Solace and Eagle Eye!).
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I pretend I'm the author and just write silly things inside the covers of books in bookstores.
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I don't mind the shaky cam so much if it's done, as this reviewer said, to bring you into the story. And I'll watch anything Damon does. He's the best actor working, bar none except for Zooey.
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Mar 04, 2010 10:57:40 AM CST
Greengrass could film the phone book and i'd be there
by kwisatzhaderach
The Bourne Supremacy and United 93 are two of the best flicks of the past 10 years.
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To quote Mr. White, "As opposed to good?" Oh, and if Zooey made a movie with Polanski, BSB's head would explode.
-
"No WMDS? No problem?"
or
"He Went Looking For WMDS...
And Found a Reason To Kick Ass!"
But yeah, this looks like a drag.
"He fixes the cable?"
-
Nothing in the review makes me want to go see this.
-
i'll take that
-
This review was formatted like a poem on my screen, very disconcerting... maybe it was an intentional homage to Greengrass's shaky cam epilepsy...
Two points to make, firstly THE KINGDOM had intense firefights, but they didn't save it.
Secondly Jason Isaacs played the same part in BLACK HAWK DOWN did he not? Him and Gleeson make me curious to see this movie but I'm worried it'll give me a headache. -
Zooey would never work with Polanski, for obvious reasons. If he ever called her she would reach through the phone and rip his esophagus out.
As for Ewan MacGregor? After the prequels he's just ecstatic to have the phone ring. Brosnan? His last role was a centaur. He'll do anything.
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Greg Kinnear, who looks to be cast in the government weenie role. Not to be confused with his usual good guy weenie roles.
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which, sorry Ridley, aint sayin a whole lot.
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Bush lied, people died. Cheney dances with the devil and the poor Iraqis pay the price. Rove sacrifices Rwandan children at midnight while Rumsfeld pleasures himself. Watch your asses, Republicans! Damon's gonna getcha!
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if nothing else, it probably will be another great John Powell score.
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The Americans are the bad guys who need to be taken down! When's Hollywood gonna stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars making Anti-American propaganda films? Rhetorical question. NEVER.Big pass of this steaming pile of crap, as well as its "star". >:(
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Mar 04, 2010 4:54:38 PM CST
I guess they've resorted to making it look like Bourne
by theghostwholurks
... since all of Hollywood's OTHER anti-American hit pieces on Iraq ended up rejected by the American public. The old motto "Throw enough $#!+ on the wall..." is alive and well in liberal Hollywoodland.
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Still skeptical of Greengrass' camera style though. But all signs point to improvements.
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otherwise I don't think Damon would have done it.
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This will tank. People seem to forget that Saddam had 14 months to ship everything out thanks to the UN. Not surprised BSB likes Damon, either. hahaha what a maroon.
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Matt Damon is in this. He will be getting revenge on U.S. soldiers for being mean to Muslims.
-
...really says everything. Just looked totally uninteresting to me every time I've seen a trailer or clip.
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Wow who says Hollywood only gives us the mindless drivel we ask for? Here's another anti-Iraq-war movie that nobody wanted. Why don't they just film Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and Matt Damon pissing on the US flag for 90 minutes and show that to us instead.
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The Bourne-Greengrass Overkill
-
"People seem to forget that Saddam had 14 months to ship everything out thanks to the UN."
(Thumps ground and wipes away tear of laughter.)
That's right, the whole thing was a conspiracy to make Bush and Blair look like boomer kids fuelled by religious zeal who knew nothing about the structure or history of the region and thought that they were on a mission from God, so none of that mattered anyway.
Gimme a break. Your team's quarterback turned out to be a useless asshole. You shouldn't defend him just because he wears your tribe's colors, and come up with pathetic excuses on his behalf. -
Oh, Matt, must you know everything? Can you see into men's souls and uncover their deepest motives?Yes, I can, Matt. But I asked you.
-
Mar 07, 2010 11:11:53 AM CST
I liek to read the retards who say anti-Bush is anti-american
by asimovlives
It takes a special kind of retard who thinks that making exposes of the corruption and lies and mishandlings of the Bush administration as being anti-american. Stupid idiotic kool-aid drinker morons!
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