Trailer: Green Zone

11 Responses to “Trailer: Green Zone”

1. joel - Oct 27 '09, 12:33 pm

   From what I’m seeing here, the only thing this movie has in common with the book it was adapted from is that they both take place in Iraq. Good book though.

2. Craig Kennedy - Oct 27 '09, 1:56 pm

   This looks like a straight up action flick…was the book more heady?

   I’m not as high on the Bourne films as most folks so I go into this one with only mild interest.

3. joel - Oct 27 '09, 2:27 pm

   The book was a non-fiction tomb describing in detail how inept and ultimately destructive the American occupation and rebuilding of post-war Iraq was during the Bush administration. Parts of it are laugh-out-loud absurdly funny, because you can’t believe how misguided and incompetent the entire effort was and parts of it are just plain depressing and sobering.

   I imagined this movie being somewhere between United 93 and In the Loop, sort of a satire of the political fiasco combined with the gritty realism that poor policy and inept decision-making have horrible consequences. I didn’t expect them to toss the book out and make Body of Lies 2.

4. Craig Kennedy - Oct 27 '09, 2:50 pm

   Interesting. I should take up this habit they call “reading” once in awhile.

5. jennybee - Oct 27 '09, 7:19 pm

   Good cast. Looks very actiony.

   I do like Greengrass.

   But…Body of Lies 2 is a good comparison. I didn’t see anything here that didn’t look like it could have fit into one of a dozen Middle East action flicks from the past few years. What’s distinctive about this one? They need to make that case, and this trailer doesn’t.

6. W.J. - Oct 27 '09, 8:21 pm

   The book will be required reading for anyone interested in Bush’s War until we finally pull out and someone writes a new book with the benefit of context and distance.

   This trailer is disappointing, to say the least. Pinning the faulty intelligence to one person (Magellan/Greg Kinnear, I’m assuming)? That’s ridiculous.

7. jennybee - Oct 27 '09, 9:36 pm

   I KNEW Greg Kinnear was to blame for something more than a crappy windshield wiper movie. Shoulda guessed Iraq was his fault.

8. joel - Oct 27 '09, 9:44 pm

   Oddly enough I’m OK with them making a good action movie set during the Iraq War. Why not? But any connection to the source material from what I see here and what I’ve read elsewhere is laughable.

   And the source material deserves a proper movie, serious or farcical, on its own merit. It’s a story that should be told.

   But hey, if this is entertaining then so be it.

9. Alexander Coleman - Oct 28 '09, 3:03 am

   Judging by the trailer, this is like taking Slaughterhouse-Five and taking away everything that makes it a unique tale, reducing it to the setting and action.

   Many trailers are, naturally, aimed at the lowest common denominator, but it is nevertheless disheartening.

   (I’m not a Bourne or even United 93 fanboy, either, though.)

10. jennybee - Oct 28 '09, 4:43 am

    Ok, Alexander, that has to be one of the first instances of the phrase “United 93 fanboy” ever written.

11. Craig Kennedy - Oct 28 '09, 10:46 am

    Even not having read the book, I’m at peace with a straight up action movie on this subject…but I’m pretty much over Greengrass’s shakey-cam-you-are-there style.

    There. I said it.

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