Ever since the Bourne franchise solidified Matt Damon as an action star, the Boston native has been in a plethora of high-octane hits. Just this year he had a starring role in Christopher Nolan’s billion-dollar blockbuster, The Odyssey, but in 2010 Damon starred in an action thriller of a different kind that was based on facts instead of fiction. Now, 16 years later, it’s officially being wiped from streaming next month.
Matt Damon Leads a Politically Charged Military Action Thriller
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Universal Pictures -
Universal Pictures -
Universal Pictures
Released on March 12, 2010, Green Zone takes its cues from the 2006 non-fiction book by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran titled Imperial Life in the Emerald City. Set in Iraq in 2003, Damon stars in the picture as Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, a U.S. Army officer leading a team tasked with locating Saddam Hussein’s alleged stockpiles of WMDs.
However, when Miller and his men repeatedly search sites that turn out to be empty, he begins questioning the intelligence behind their mission. As such, he soon finds himself investigating a possible cover-up that reaches to the highest levels of government, risking everything to uncover the truth.
Also starring Amy Ryan, Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear, Jason Isaacs, and Michael O’Neill, Green Zone reunited Damon with director Paul Greengrass following their work together on The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. After Green Zone, they reunited once again for Jason Bourne in 2016, which proved to be the final movie in the long-running action franchise (at least for now).
Currently, Green Zone is available to stream with the Cinemax add-on on places like Amazon, Hulu and Roku. All that will change very soon, though, as the film is set to depart Cinemax on Oct. 31, meaning it won’t be available on any major streaming platform for the time being.
‘Green Zone’ Was a Flop at the Box Office
Scoring just 53% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Green Zone was DOA when it hit theaters 16 years ago. Produced for $100 million, the film only managed to take in $94 million at the box office, making it a commercial failure.
“Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass return to the propulsive action and visceral editing of the Bourne films, but a clichéd script and stock characters keep those methods from being as effective this time around,” reads the overall consensus for Green Zone. Viewers were in agreement, scoring the movie just 57% on Rotten Tomatoes.
That being said, Green Zone is still a politically charged military action thriller that combines intense combat sequences, conspiracies, and a compelling mystery surrounding one of the most controversial aspects of the Iraq War. Many of the characters in the movie might be fictitious, but the events it explores were very real. That alone makes it worth watching at least once, even if it wasn’t exactly Damon and Greengrass’ best work together.
Next up for Damon is a mysterious sci-fi action comedy directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (the same duo behind the award-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once). Plot details for the new movie are being kept under wraps, but it is said to deal with time travel, climate change, and feature multiple timelines. Despite being shrouded in secrecy, the untitled film does have a release date of Nov. 19, 2027.
