2025 - THE LOST BUS - based on a true story apparently

Showing up on streaming this month The Lost Bus is one of those based on a true story deals.  The plot concerns the heroic efforts of a school bus driver trying to rescue 22 children trapped in an out of control fire called the "2018 Camp Fire." This was one of the most devastating fires in the history of California.  The driver Kevin McKay is played by a very scruffy looking Matthew McConaughey and the school teacher Mary Ludwig is played by America Ferrera.  Ferrera of course got to deliver that famous feminist speech in the Barbie film.  

 

The film was directed by Paul Greengrass who brings his usual documentary technique film style to tell the story.  Greengrass likes to use handheld cameras which gives the film a sort of immediacy to the storytelling.  The handheld camera has a lot of shaky photography and at times can probably induce motion sickness in a viewer watching all that photographic bouncing around.

The film is good at capturing the terror of the massive fire. The story is apparently true for the most part, so what's the problem?  Well it seems that Greengrass and his screenwriter had decided to add lots of stuff about the personal lives of the bus driver and the teacher.  The bus driver is having problems in his relationship with his son and ex wife.  The school teacher has led a sheltered life and has not really lived an adventurous fulfilling life, blah blah blah.  Why the makers of this film needed to add all of this junk is beyond my understanding.  The circumstance of the school children stuck in a bus which might get consumed by a fire should really have been enough drama.  All this personal lives stuff of the teacher and bus driver just dilutes and drags out the film.

 

The film is well made, Greengrass knows how to stage intense dramatic scenes in this case a forest fire chasing a school bus full of frightened elementary school children.  The Lost Bus is sort of a real life version of The Towering Inferno.

The film was written by Paul Greengrass and Brad Ingelsby, the running time is an overlong 130 minutes.   

2010 - THE GREEN ZONE, Iraq war film is stunningly naive

Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon are shocked, shocked to realize that the United States government lied to the American public about the circumstances leading up to our involvement in Iraq.  It took them seven years and probably watching a lot of good documentaries that have already come out about Iraq, but they screwed up their courage and made a film stating the obvious.

Universal Studios couldn't say no to the director and star of the Bourne films but maybe they should have.  Damon's supposed to be playing a tough WMD soldier but he comes off more as a guy working towards his Eagle Scout badge. With the help of his trusty lap top and Google he goes to work.  He  uncovers the truth about the lack of WMD's in Iraq and our involvement in the war.   Finally towards the end of the film he becomes a gun blasting James Bond in search of the truth. 

The director Paul Greengrass uses his now very tiresome and cliche ridden hand held camera technique to make the action look like something in a bad You Tube video.  The staging is supposed to make the action look exciting but I can only imagine in a theater with all the bouncing around  the audience got a hell of a headache. Time to give Greengrass a tripod for his camera mount, the act is getting old. 

The only interesting character in the entire film is Greg Kinnear as the sneaky government employee manipulating everyone involved in the occupation of Iraq.  Kinnear has his own group of thugs to keep the truth from coming out but he meets his match in our true blue hero,  Damon.

Maybe someone will eventually make an Iraq war movie with widespread audience appeal, but for now audiences can enjoy seeing how cool Matt Damon looks in his military issue sunglasses