Saturday, May 22, 2010

The Men Who Stare At Goats

The Men Who Stare At Goats (2010)
Genre : Comedy (94 minutes)
MPAA Rating : R
Release Date : 11/09 (DVD released 03/10)
My Rating : 5*/10
. Ewan McGregor plays a reporter in Iraq who crosses paths with a special forces operator (George Clooney), who claims to be on a top-secret mission that requires his Jedi knight-like abilities. They forge a Luke-Obi Wan type of relationship, and along the way, there are lots of flashbacks to when Clooney was part of a "New Earth Army" training program in the armed forces, under the guidance of a pony-tailed hippie named Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). Kevin Spacey plays the bad guy in the mix; and the goats play themselves. . What's To Like... The all-star cast does not disappoint. Men Who Stare At Goats features good acting from top to bottom. There are some laugh-out-loud funny scenes, and there is no romance. If you are someone "stuck in the 60's", you will find this film a hoot . . So why did this flop at the Box Office? Simple - the script sucks. The "Mission" is a total let-down, and while there's a hilarious closing scene (albeit, not realistic at all in a war zone), the ending itself is lame. . Still, it brought back some fine psychedelic memories. Umm... not that I ever personally did any hallucinogens, mind you. But I read about them in Reader's Digest. Umm... Yeah. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. . So we'll give it 5 stars. There's enough humor to compensate the lack of a plot, and the fine acting compensates for the bad ending. It's worth your time to rent this, but don't buy it. What it needs is for someone to wait 5 years, and then do a total re-make of the concept, as was done with the various Batman cinematic series. This cooda been really good. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

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