Yep- that’s it in a nutshell.  Two-time “Bourne”-franchise director  Paul Greengrass  re-teams with Matt Damon in a simplistic Iraq war thriller  that basically has one man uncovering  the scandal behind the  futile search for WMD’s in the opening days of the war.  I expected much better from Greengrass, who should have won the Oscar for the 2006 masterpiece “United 93”.  There’s no fault with Matt Damon’s acting.  And the jerky-docu-style camera work is skillful.  The problem is this  not only dumbed down- it’s extremely heavy-handed,.  What worked so well with “The Hurt Locker” was it  refused to take sides.  This is no “Hurt Locker”. And it’s no “Bourne” either.  Too many red flags for me with “Green Zone”.

2 stars