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Reviews Counted:166
Fresh:89
Rotten:77
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: Though The Men Who Stare at Goats is a mostly entertaining, farcical glimpse of men at war, some may find its satire and dark humor less than edgy.
Rated: R [See Full Rating]
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Nov 6, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $31,289,229
Synopsis: A reporter (Ewan McGregor) delves into the world of psychic military regiments during the Iraq War in this adaptation of the Jon Ronson book THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. George Clooney, Kevin... [More]
Starring: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey
Director: Grant Heslov
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At best, it's an assembly line of disconnected gags that rely entirely on Mr. Clooney's sub-deadpans and Mr. McGregor's innocent mug working perpendicular to the jokes. At worst, it's a meditation on the greater absurdities of New Age beliefs and ideals.
There's a lament for perverting the purity of essence in enlightenment to military-complex exploitation. Like the film's test goats, it's been de-bleated and, given the pithy talk of Jedi warriors, this is not the political satire you're looking for.
Through the whole film one has the feeling that the real story is just about to begin, but like the original military project, we go nowhere and nothing ever comes of anything.
Psychic spies. Jedi warriors. Clooney delivers big time, but the story could have been better.
Comes to us as the latest political satire to have inadvertently sliced off its own pair.
Begins with the subtitle: "More of this is true than you would believe." It's the perfect beginning to a film that deftly combines truth and fiction.
Setting up easy targets, The Men Who Stare at Goats seems less clever than behind the times.
Mind-altering drugs just might make it seem better than it is.
A quietly wacky military satire good for scattered chuckles and laughs.
Not the acerbic, Strangelovian satire one might expect but a pleasant, good-natured film that adopts the happy hippy vibe of Bridges' far-out Vietnam vet...
This story is a myth, but it is pleasant, gentle and funny. Like all myths, it reveals certain truths.
Too shallow for satire and not funny enough for comedy, the infantile Goats is really just a silly absurdist movie trying to pass for an antiwar film.
The picture soon runs literally and figuratively into the sands and can't dig itself out.
Sometimes hits big with genuine laugh-out-loud moments, but more often, this comedy leaves us scratching our heads, wondering where it all went so wrong.
Feels all too light; it's a movie wherein all the best, funniest bits were shown in the trailer.
I walked out feeling as if it had been enjoyable, even though the word on my lips was, 'Huh?'
A likable little movie that feels more indie than most indies, isn't afraid to shamble along, and, sadly, seems oblivious to the fact that it's in need of a bigger ending.
...Clooney is tongue in cheek convincing.
Whatever George Clooney and his friends are smoking, could they please pass some of it around? We're confused and we need it.
Maybe it is just easier to laugh at things that happened decades ago, but the contemporary story never attains the same power as the flashbacks.
November 05, 2009:
Critics Consensus: A Christmas Carol Dazzles But Disappoints
This week at the movies, we've got some modern-day Dickens (Disney's A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman); a button-pushing thriller (The Box, starring... More...
November 03, 2009:
Total Recall: George Clooney's Best Movies
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. We hear it all the time, but George Clooney is living proof that perseverance pays off: Despite the inauspicious beginnings of a... More...
October 02, 2009:
New: Brand New Trailer and Poster
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