Thursday, August 20, 2015

The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

Director: Grant Heslov

Writers: Peter Heslov, Jon Ronson

Composer: Rolfe Kent

Starring: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Lang, Robert Patrick, Waleed Zuaiter, Stephen Root, Glenn Morshower, Nick Offerman, Tim Griffin

More info: IMDb

Tagline: No goats. No glory.

Plot:  A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.



My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Probably Not.

It looks and feels like a Coen Bros. movie and a good one at that.  That's quite a compliment.  George Clooney is hilarious.  He often has that wide-eyed O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000) thing going on that just tickles me to death.  Geez, just look at the cast. Jeff Bridges is hilarious, Kevin Spacey is hilarious.  I've used that word a lot already but is the movie hilarious?  It's got some great laugh out loud moments but it's not a solid 2.3 laughs per minute like you'd think it should be but it is pretty fun. It's sometimes quirky but what helps bring the funny is that it's largely true.  The names have been changed but some of the people and a lot of the situations are totally real.  The Anchor Bay DVD will give you more details with the extras like a 12-minute featurette with the real guys telling their story (fun), a 7-minute featurette that gives you the usual cast & crew interviews with lots of clips from the film, 4 minutes of deleted scenes, the anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer and trailers for other Anchor Bay films & TV shows.

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