The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

Pretty Good

Highly Overrated But Still Good

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

After seeing this movie, I could only surmise that it's some kind of disinformation film to make jokes out of what is commonly known as remote viewing. The movie portrays remote viewers as army's attempt to train soldiers to be new age hippies (seriously). From what I've read the real remote viewers were deadly effective (otherwise the government wouldn't have funded them for 23 years). But if the effectiveness of remote viewing was really conveyed, it would be disclosing one of the closely guarded secrets of US military operations. So my take after seeing the movie is that it was created to be a disinformation campaign to make the world believe that this is what remote viewing is about. None of the characters in the movie could do remote viewing. As if it didn't exist. And maybe that's the real message this movie wanted to convey.

"More of this is true than you would actually believe." A title card tells us before the film starts. This story that you will never believe is actually based on anything in reality starts off with Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) a down on his luck reporter who goes to Iraq to get the latest scoop on the War on Terror. In doing so he meets Sergeant First Class Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) a former US Army soldier who was part of a top secret unit of the Army called the New Earth Army, which was a unit that used paranormal powers. As Lyn drives Bob to an Army outpost he tells his the history of the unit, with Lyn's friendship with his commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). But because Lyn and Bob are in Iraq they run into Al Qaeda and a security detail that complicate their lives. Luckily Lyn's psychic abilities always get them out of a jam. Overall I thought this was a good comedy that always managed to put elements of humor in at the right moments. I also can't help but feel that the movie I really about friendship. Bob and Lyn's dialog together is funny, and Clooney gives a great comedic showing. The movie is also told in many flashback scenes with Lyn and Bill in the New Earth Army and the relationship that these two guys have is just great. It's not a perfect comedy but it's certainly not as bad as some people make it out to be.

Before watching this movie I had to do some research on it and the results were not pretty. A 51% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.3 on here says a lot about a film. I did however read multiple reviews that the confusing and hard to follow story was supported by a noble cast including Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. This seems very much like the kind of movie I would like and I did like it. I thought that it was going to be a lot less funny than it actually was. It was marketed as a comedy yet was very dramatic, and the humor was dark. I know this bothers a lot of people but I like it. Overall I had very low standards and I was pleasantly proved wrong by a quirky, confusing, well casted romp with some more dark moments you don't expect to find in a comedy.

A good-hearted film; funny, witty, with some actual criticism that works undercover of a crazy, but (partly) true story. Clairvoyance and such have been much tried to put to use while trying to rule a kingdom at the same time all throughout history, so why shouldn't the Americans and / or the Russians have a go? But the point is that - beside the point of this intelligence being real or not - there are always forces that will take it too far, or simply abuse it. Here, this force is named Larry Hopper, fortunately with the Jedi on his tail.Though I found the story a little dull and easy at times, it's overall entertaining and in its better moments even surprising and touching. I'm beginning to think I'm not much of a fan of McGregor, but I can't say I think he's a bad actor - the same goes for Spacey, I suppose. Bridges, Clooney and Lang were my favorites here. Filmicly, it was not at all superior, but not bad either.A meager 7 out of 10.