War movies very much seem to be about the contemporary at the moment and given the availability of so much subject matter, who’d blame them?

Green Zone centers around the furor of conceit surrounding the ‘illegal’ Iraqi invasion. With Matt Damon a US Army Captain becoming aware of misleading intel that continually points to non-existent WMD’s, he becomes the fly in the ointment of USA foreign policy.

Caught between the truth of the CIA and the fiction of Government, his decisions lead us through a relatively enjoyable film that plays on the stereotypes of middle eastern sub-culture where everybody belongs to some sort of shadowy underground organisation and hates America.

Despite not having the intelligence and wit of Jason Bourne, Matt Damon is still very entertaining to watch; he’s macho and strong willed, allowing the audience brief moments of reward as he chases justice without compromise.

Having the most amazing helicopter crash ever on film goes some way towards leaving pleasant memories of the film, but it can’t disguise what was essentially a fairly average interpretation of what is a political hot potato. Some very weak performances, especially by Brendan Gleeson, a grade A actor in his own right, but simply unable to shake his strong irish accent making for cringeworthy dialogue.