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Plot: Chief Miller (Matt Damon) is raiding suspected WMD sites immediately after the invasion of Baghdad, and is frustrated he is not finding anything. He pushes and discovers a gulf between the CIA and the Neo-cons running the post-invastion administration. He finds an informant, and begins to track an Iraqi general. This leads to a raid on the general with the CIA trying to beat the army to the target.
Review: The film was entertaining, but plagued by faults. First and most obviously was the shaking, hand-held camera that bedeviled the whole film especially the action sequences. Too often, I gave up watching because I could not tell what was happening. The opening sequence is unwatchable, and the final chase is about as bad. I know this is supposed build suspense, and the movie works emotionally, but this film was frustrating to watch.
Second this film was based on a non-fiction book, but the movie does not seem true to me. I am a news junky, and I am no neo-con, but this movie is too bias in its treatment of serious matters. It is too soon to be making fictional movies about Iraq. I imagine that the Magellan character is some composite of real sources, but this is making a claim of an assassination on the part of a Pentagon undersecretary, which is a war crime. This is not appropriate in an action movie. I presume the filmmakers are trying to make a point with this movie.
There is a thirty year tradition of good spy/bad spy movies, and I can't get upset about a film on government in fighting, but this war isn't even over. It truly would be a shame if this were all just an attempt to make money by slandering the government.
Third, Matt Damon's Chief Miller is the only well-developed character. There was no girl friend, no wife, no mother, no buddy in his squad, no peer back at the base. The character development was thin.
Finally, the movie works and is entertaining. The action comes fast enough. The plot is clever enough. It was a successful night at the movies, and I was glad I went -- though frustrated.
Cast: Matt Damon
Directed by: Paul Greengrass; based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran who was bureau chief for the Washington Post in Iraq during this period
Rating: 1.5 flasks; Its entertainment value is 2.5, but it loses 1/2 star for the awful camera work, and another half star for the fast-and-loose approach to the truth.
More: Is it truth or is it fiction? A tasteless entertainment built around serious charges against the US government.
Even more: Someone buy Paul Greengrass a camera stand.
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Plot: Chief Miller (Matt Damon) is raiding suspected WMD sites immediately after the invasion of Baghdad, and is frustrated he is not finding anything. He pushes and discovers a gulf between the CIA and the Neo-cons running the post-invastion administration. He finds an informant, and begins to track an Iraqi general. This leads to a raid on the general with the CIA trying to beat the army to the target.
Review: The film was entertaining, but plagued by faults. First and most obviously was the shaking, hand-held camera that bedeviled the whole film especially the action sequences. Too often, I gave up watching because I could not tell what was happening. The opening sequence is unwatchable, and the final chase is about as bad. I know this is supposed build suspense, and the movie works emotionally, but this film was frustrating to watch.
Second this film was based on a non-fiction book, but the movie does not seem true to me. I am a news junky, and I am no neo-con, but this movie is too bias in its treatment of serious matters. It is too soon to be making fictional movies about Iraq. I imagine that the Magellan character is some composite of real sources, but this is making a claim of an assassination on the part of a Pentagon undersecretary, which is a war crime. This is not appropriate in an action movie. I presume the filmmakers are trying to make a point with this movie.
There is a thirty year tradition of good spy/bad spy movies, and I can't get upset about a film on government in fighting, but this war isn't even over. It truly would be a shame if this were all just an attempt to make money by slandering the government.
Third, Matt Damon's Chief Miller is the only well-developed character. There was no girl friend, no wife, no mother, no buddy in his squad, no peer back at the base. The character development was thin.
Finally, the movie works and is entertaining. The action comes fast enough. The plot is clever enough. It was a successful night at the movies, and I was glad I went -- though frustrated.
Cast: Matt Damon
Directed by: Paul Greengrass; based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran who was bureau chief for the Washington Post in Iraq during this period
Rating: 1.5 flasks; Its entertainment value is 2.5, but it loses 1/2 star for the awful camera work, and another half star for the fast-and-loose approach to the truth.
More: Is it truth or is it fiction? A tasteless entertainment built around serious charges against the US government.
Even more: Someone buy Paul Greengrass a camera stand.
