Directed by Grant Heslov
(R)
**
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A war reporter stumbles upon a top-secret outfit.
The Men Who Stare at Goats is “one of those over-the-top absurdist anti-war satires,” said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Loosely based on Jon Ronson’s nonfiction book, this offbeat comedy stars Ewan McGregor as an Iraq war reporter who meets “the Jedi”—a team of psychic U.S. spies, played by George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey—who use their supposed paranormal powers as weapons of war. Because of its madcap premise, comparisons to classics like Dr. Strangelove are inevitable, but The Men Who Stare at Goats doesn’t deserve them, said Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post. Instead, it “glides along with an easy, slightly gonzo grin on its face but never quite goes anywhere.” While the script combines flashes of Stanley Kubrick’s impish sense of humor with the eccentric energy of Hunter S. Thompson, it has neither of those men’s “ferocious genius.” What it does have, however, is a superb cast of actors, said Anthony Lane in The New Yorker. To watch Bridges, Clooney, and Spacey “clashing wits as if they were lightsabers” doesn’t save the film, but it certainly makes sitting through it a lot more fun.
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