Review: The Men Who Stare At Goats

The Men Who Stare At Goats

That goat is going places in Hollywood I can feel it, he already has more potential than Miley Cyrus.

The Men Who Stare At goats is a new comedy film directed by Grant Heslov based on a book by Jon Ronson, it stars George Clooney as a former psychic soldier and Ewan McGregor as a reporter following the, possibly insane, Clooney around the Middle East.

The film also features Kevin Spacey as an evil psychic that stands as opposite to the laid back and new agey Clooney.

The film starts with the reported Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) breaking up with his wife, he then travels to Kuwait to write about the Iraq War. On his way there he runs into Lyn Cassidy (Clooney) the self-professed psychic spy, Clooney claims to posses the powers of Remote viewing, telekinesis, the ability to walk through solid objects and says he once killed a goat with his mind.

So a synopsis that’s great! But what you really want to know is, is it any good? And the answer to that is kind of. The comedy is very hit and miss, and often times predictable. This can be excused because the film is driven by plot as much as comedy. But don’t get me wrong there is some legitimately funny moments (mostly from Clooney).

The cinematography is beautiful and in places perfectly captures the vastness of the desert. Suavey Mc Suave, Suave (George Clooney) is one of the most recognised actors in Hollywood for his performances in films like Oceans Eleven and Up In The Air.

He is even charming as a vagrant!

And for these reasons going into the film I had high expectations of him, and he was good, not great. It is understandable; this is not his normal role. If there was one thing he did well in this film it was his timing, the guy was just able to time the jokes perfectly and was able to broadcast his emotions with out being over the top.

The person who was great in this film (despite not having much screen time) was Kevin Spacey, rarely have I been disappointed with his acting finesse, today was no exception. He was playing a less than heroic character. in film His skills at arousing hatred in the audience are hard to match. Though it must be noted he can play sympathetic characters, see American Beauty. On an unrelated note, go watch American Beauty, yeah now. Don't read ahead to see where I am going with this, just go watch it right now, I will wait.

Jeff Bridges plays Bill Dhanjo, the top brass who set up the army psychic training facility, after being shot in Nam. He Is brilliant you really get a sense of his character, and he was legitimately funny, he really was such a well fleshed out character.

All the other actors are all right but don’t warrant too much of a mention

My major qualm with the movie is this; it sets itself up as a true story, it says it’s a true story from the beginning. But then it presents such outlandish situations and shows actual psychic phenomenon. And because of that it brings into question the entire movie. Now certain facts in the movie are true, but when you swirl it round with the speculation and unsubstantiated nonsense it weakens the entire story as a work of non-fiction. And indeed the film is in its stride when it is showing the farcical nature of the ideology subscribed to by the psychics.

But lets be honest they aren't exactly hard comedic targets

The film in a nutshell, weird, quirky, Joel and Ethan Cohenesque and a tad bullshit. Entertaining but take it with a grain of salt.

Three and a half stars

(this counts as tuesdays update.)