Movie Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats

November 6, 2009 by Brendan
Filed under: Movie News, Movie Reviews

The Men Who Stare at Goats Review

In The Men Who Stare At Goats, Ewan McGregor plays Bob Wilton, a lowly reporter from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who finds himself stationed in Kuwait, waiting to cross the border into Iraq to cover Operation Iraqi Freedom. With his personal life in shambles after his wife left him for a one-armed man, Wilton figures that he can head to Iraq, look like a hero with some Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism and win back the love of his life. Wilton has no idea, however, how his life is about to change when he meets up with a character named Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), who claims to be a recently re-activated member of the U.S. Army’s New Earth Battalion, a unit that trained its soldiers to use paranormal powers on their missions. The men are made to believe that they can split clouds, become invisible, pass through solid walls and kill with a simple look – a practice they test out on goats. Cassady takes Wilton through the history of the classified military program, where we are introduced to characters like Lieutenant Colonel Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), the off-the-wall founder of the program and the man in charge of training the soldiers and Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), a psychic soldier and Lyn’s former nemesis, who is now stationed in Iraq. As Wilton points out in the movie, he headed to Iraq looking for a story and Lyn Cassady brought him an adventure.

Going into The Men Who Stare At Goats, I had high expectations based on what I saw in the humourous trailer and based on a solid cast that includes George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. What I got was sort of a cross between the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading and The Big Lebowski. The big exception is that this movie is never quite as exciting as Burn After Reading and never quite as funny as The Big Lebowski. Don’t get me wrong, Goats has its moments – seeing McGregor’s Bob Wilton discuss Jedi’s with much puzzlement with Lyn Cassady was clever and amusing. And Jeff Bridges has not been this good since he played The Dude in 1998, despite the fact that he is almost playing the same character. I guess I just went into this movie expecting an Oscar-contending production and that just didn’t happen.

With that being said, Goats has solid performances, led by Bridges and Clooney, who are both exceptional. There are many humourous moments, just not side-slapping comedy. Probably the most unbelievable thing about this movie is the fact that it is based on a true story. That’s just crazy. Are you trying to tell me that the U.S. Army was trying to train soldiers to walk through walls and kill with their minds? Goats is based on the non-fiction book of the same title, written by Jon Ronson. According to him, it is completely true. The movie even starts with a footnote that “more of this story is true than you would like to believe” or something like that. It’s the most insane thing about the whole film – that most of it is apparently true. If that is the case, then somewhere in America in the 1980’s a U.S. soldier killed a goat with his mind.

With that, I will leave you with my recommendation on The Men Who Stare At Goats – don’t go into the movie with overly high expectations because you might be disappointed. It’s a solid movie, just not outstanding. I will also add that if you are a fan of George Clooney you should be impressed by yet another strong performance being added to his already impressive resume. If you are a fan of Jeff Bridges, you will be equally satisfied by Bill Django. And if you have missed The Big Lebowski for the last 11 years, you should be happy that his twin brother has finally returned to the big screen. (7 out of 10)

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