It’s a disappointment.
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11/09/09
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The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
39
%
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Reviews Counted:31
Fresh:12
Rotten:19
Average Rating:4.8/10
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: $27,624,058
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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Reviews for The Men Who Stare at Goats
Top CriticEveryone involved seems to have had a pretty good time, but this one looks like it was more fun to make than it is to watch.
11/09/09
Top CriticThe narrative flips and flops ruin the comedic flow.
11/06/09
Top CriticIf this is what a Hollywood liberal conscience looks like, it's a glib and useless thing.
11/06/09
Top CriticThis is grizzled, wild-eyed Clooney, not the suave sophisticate, and it's a nice change of pace.
11/06/09
Top CriticIt seems too much a privilege to be chuckling in the theater about psychic warfare while the unfunny business of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan continues.
11/06/09
Top CriticHeslov directs for the first time in a career that, I pray, will consist of one movie.
11/06/09
Top CriticClooney and Bridges model an assortment of wigs and facial hair as they labor to put across their outsize characters.
11/06/09
Top CriticThe sense of emotional detachment keeps things feeling smooth and low-key, but, as is clear in the film's last few scenes, the playful tone shades into the simply trivial, which in the setting doesn't quite play.
11/06/09
Top CriticThe picture lacks discipline and focus at times, but it's fun despite the chaos, although a wandering-in-the-desert scene goes on far too long.
11/06/09
Top CriticA likable, lightweight, absurdist comedy.
11/06/09
Top CriticThere's no doubt we need more movies for grown-ups, with jokes that don't hit us over the head, but The Men Who Stare at Goats doesn't fit the bill. At best, it might hypnotize you into a stupor.
11/05/09
Top CriticThere's not much of a story here. All that energy, all that enthusiasm and all that self-generated propulsion are about one thing: distracting us from realizing it.
11/05/09
Top CriticYou may wonder if this screen version of the book of the same name is as unfunny and strangely mushy as it seems, but trust your instincts.
11/05/09
Top CriticIf there doesn't seem to be enough story here to make a movie, seeing the film's practiced farceurs at work can't help but be amusing. A lot more fun, all things considered, than trying to will yourself through a wall.
11/05/09
Top CriticThe yarn unravels without ever identifying its satirical targets. Is it a lampoon of peace-and-love mysticism? A critique of militant war-for-profit privateers? Ultimately, it's a shapeless wad of goat cheese.
11/05/09
Top CriticThis is the anti-Hurt Locker experience: Where that Iraq War film was absorbing and deadly serious, The Men Who Stare at Goats is irreverent and lighthearted.
11/05/09
Top CriticThe Men Who Stare at Goats has a glorious good time satirizing the extravagant lengths to which the military and intelligence establishments will go if they think there's a payoff at the other end.
11/05/09
Top CriticWhat had been a slightly quirky satire becomes first a wild comedy, then an impassioned exposé. Taking itself too seriously (and treating the military as a joke), it quickly begins to unravel.
11/05/09
Top CriticYou can’t make this stuff up, but you can botch the telling of it, and that’s what sinks this satiric drama based loosely on a 2004 nonfiction book by London-based journalist Jon Ronson.
11/05/09
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