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CL's own Joe Bardi saw it in theaters and had some excellent things to say about it, saying that, although the movie takes a very sensitive issue and plays with it, it delivers the greatest hits of the war, and if you saw the war from your TV, then you can easily recognize now infamous shots. I agreed with Bardi, that the movie was pretty entertaining, and I especially agreed with the notion that Matt Damon was in top form. Damon, who is everywhere in this movie looks like he put the time in to getting the movie, and his character right, from the way he holds his gun, to how he walks and talks, Damon echoes the movies sentiments of placing a popcorn flick into a very real situation of finding WMD's in a very volatile Iraq.
The special features easily make the DVD, and for me, were more enjoyable than the movie. While the all the features left me wanting more, the substance to them was well thought out. The Deleted Scenes had director Greengrass and Damon commentating, explaining what was going on in the scene and why the scene wasn't used, which was really interesting.
"Matt Damon: Ready for action" was my favorite, because it showed how all of Damon's team were real soldiers in the Iraq war and showed not only the effort to get every detail right, but the respect and admiration both Damon and the real soldiers had for each other and the project. Several times, it showed a very humble Damon asking what the real soldiers would be doing in the scene, and making sure every detail was well done.
"Inside the Green Zone" is a typical special feature production on how the movie was made, centering on the director letting the characters and real soldiers do what they would do in an attempt to get the most authentic response possible. The process was quite interesting, and the attention to detail earned a lot of respect in the movie.
Finally, the feature commentary with the director and Matt Damon was very good, as you could easily see the enthusiasm they had for the project, and the respect they had for the soldiers in the real life war. I truly felt, by the end, they gave everything they had to make a very real, respectful movie that delves into a very shameful subject for Americans.
Overall, it's a movie about a very sore subject that tries to squeeze action out of the situation. The movie was good, and the special features were enjoyable, leaving me to highly recommend the rent, especially since no one went to the theaters to see it anyway. Don't worry about too much political commentary, as the movie is more about the location of the WMD's than why they aren't there.
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