Sunday 26 September 2010

The Men Who Stare At Goats: Review

When The Men Who Stare At Goats opened at this year's London Film Festival, it caused incredible excitement and positive buzz from the critics, but I get the feeling that it was the critics trying to follow the crowd and look like they are 'with it' with their peers, because, to be totally honest, this is actually a very lacklustre affair.

Ewen McGregor plays a small town reporter who interviews a man about his psychic powers. He is informed that there was a secret military outfit who enlisted soldiers with such powers, and there was one man in particular, who could kill goats just by staring at them. Well, McGregor's marriage breaks down and so he heads off to Iraq, where he happens to meet this powerful man, and a journey to Baghdad begins, with the full story being conveyed.

The premise is fascinating, and it is supposedly based on a true story, and it is the flashback moments, where we get to see how this platoon are formed by Vietnam vet and hippie Jeff Bridges. The trouble is, this is far too quirky for its own liking, and by being quirky, it has the most heavy-handed screenplay this year, leading to the dullest last half hour ever.

George Clooney, looking like he is ready to play Blakey in On The Buses, is fine, while nobody does hippie as well as Jeff Bridges, but they are let down with this laden dialogue and direction that lacks any pace. The trip to Bagdad, in which Clooney crashes into rocks on roads or landmines are funny yet the bits in between drag it down.

I also couldn't help but think that director Grant Heslov has spent far too much time watching Coen Brothers movies to get his inspiration, but he doesn't have the wit, style or surreal sense to make this close to one of their movies.

The narration by McGregor becomes increasingly annoying, and Kevin Spacey, as the rival psychic to Clooney, is wasted. So what we have here is a film that promises so much and delivers very little.

Oh, and please ignore the posters claiming that this is 'fast and funny'. it is, quite frankly, neither.

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