This Week's PCR Movie Review

	"Green Zone" Movie review by: Michael A. Smith Movies are rated 0 to 4 stars

MOVIE REVIEW "Green Zone"  by Mike Smith
RETRORAMA Mystery Science Theater 3000: XVII  by ED Tucker
THE ASIAN APERTURE Travels to Japan on Film  by Jason Fetters
MIKE'S RANT Coming Soon .... Final Oscar Thoughts .... Passing On .... .... .... .... .... .... Mike's Record Shelf  by Mike Smith

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Universal     
Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear and Brendan Gleeson
Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Rated: R
Running Time: 1 hour 55 mins

The time: March 2003. The place: Baghdad. As the world watches through the eyes of CNN the sky lights up with the detonation of hundreds of bombs. “This,” says the faceless reporter, is “shock and awe.”

One month later, a team of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) searchers, led by Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) surround a building that, according to their intelligence, contains toxic nerve agents. However, when they get inside they find nothing but the skeletal workings of a plumbing factory. “Must be the intel,” one of the team suggests, “there’s nothing here.” “For the third time?” Miller fumes.

Based on true occurrences, “Green Zone” is a triumphant reuniting of star and director, who previously gave us “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Greenrass, who earned an Academy Award nomination for the outstanding “United 93,” uses his faux documentary style to make the film jump off of the screen. Screenwriter Brian Helgeland, who won an Oscar for co-writing “L.A. Confidential” and earned another nomination for “Mystic River,” has adapted Rajiv Chandrasekarans’ story of our governments’ insistence of WMDs to include many behind the scenes battles between those who think the weapons are there and those who know they aren’t. “Aren’t we all on the same side,” Miller asks his C.I.A. contact? The answer: don’t be naïve.”

Damon shines as Miller, a true patriot who can’t even fathom that he may be fighting a war that didn’t need to be started. Kinnear and Gleeson are also first rate, each one trying to keep one step in front of the other, hoping that Iraq, for want of a better term, plays along with its new American visitors. The action and suspense portrayed on screen hold your attention much more, in my opinion, then the most recent Oscar winner, “The Hurt Locker,” ever did. In fact, THIS is what “The Hurt Locker” should have been. To quote the banner displayed by our 43rd President: “Mission Accomplished.”

On a scale of zero to four stars, I give “Green Zone”