What happened to the laugh? Just like The Informant, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS practically puts all its funny jokes in the preview/trailer and leaves barely anything for the movie itself, the difference is the jokes in The Informant are still funny when you hear them the second or third or fourth time around, but by that time… THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS has run out of fuel. The Jedi references can only go so far until it gets annoying. Another screwball comedy starring George Clooney but this time it’s directed by his long time friend Grant Heslov. In the end, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS is a movie that The Coen Brothers could’ve come up with and done a better work at it.
Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (Academy Award® winner George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of “Warrior Monks” with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy’s thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program’s founder, Bill Django (Oscar® nominee Jeff Bridges), has gone missing and Cassady’s mission is to find him.
Intrigued by his new acquaintance’s far-fetched stories, Bob impulsively decides to accompany him on the search. When the pair tracks Django to a clandestine training camp run by renegade psychic Larry Hooper (two-time Oscar® winner Kevin Spacey), the reporter is trapped in the middle of a grudge match between the forces of Django’s New Earth Army and Hooper’s personal militia of super soldiers. In order to survive this wild adventure, Bob will have to outwit an enemy he never thought possible.
Don’t look any further, the top person to blame for this fiasco is screenwriter Peter Straughan who adapted Jon Ronson’s book which I’m sure is more clever and hysterical than this movie would ever hope to be. If you remember, Straughan is also the person to blame for one of the worst, most hollow, toothless comedy of 2008, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People.
That said, I think Heslov’s inexperienced directorial debut may have something to do with this movie’s over reliance on Clooney’s cocky and delusional character. In fact, that’s all Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey’s characters were, cocky and delusional, that’s all that this movie’s got going.
Granted, it has a great concept, you would think that a movie about psychic soldiers would contain more wit, it even has a few effective pun and punch lines that you wouldn’t see coming a mile away. But the rest feels like one failed SNL sketch after another. To get to that very few actual funny parts, you’d have to go through many scenes that would only tickle those who are easily amused.
I’m aware that a comedy doesn’t always have to be a laugh riot, in that case I’d expect it to be a satire or at least to have some kind of a mess that would lead us to a giant meaningless clusterf*ck but I don’t think THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS really even has a solid story worth following. What is it making fun of? The military? Our stubbornness for continuing to do what we believe in even if other people think we’re insane? Don’t live ordinary?
Kudos to all the award worthy big names in this movie that aren’t afraid to make fools of themselves but it’s sad to see that their efforts have practically gone to waste.
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS will take you to the past. Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) tells the story of how the New Earth Soldiers came to be, at the same time he embarks on a mission with the team’s best Jedi, Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney) to find the pioneer, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). Kevin Spacey is the rival who has created his own team, his own operation to continue what has been shut down by the Pentagon.
What I find funny is that with all this Jedi talk, McGregor actually played a Jedi himself back in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels.
In the end, it’s plain and simple, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS reveals too much in the trailer/preview and has almost nothing left to surprise its audience.
* Place the cursor on the image below to check my grade for this film
