MOVIE REVIEW: THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Director: Grant Heslov
Screenplay: Peter Straughan
TRT: 93 Minutes (R) for language, some drug content and brief nudity.
Cast
George Clooney as Lyn Cassady
Ewan McGregor as Bob Wilton
Jeff Bridges as Bill Django
Kevin Spacey as Larry Hooper
Peacock Feathers (3 1/2 out of 5)
By Marcus Thorpe
You got to hand it to George Clooney, he is not afraid to take chances. You want serious, you get Michael Clayton. You want playful and charming you get Ocean’s 11. You want quirky, you get The Men Who Stare at Goats. In Clooney’s latest work, he gives you a hard working performance that leads this oddball comedy to a really unique combination of staring and glaring that will mezmorize you to a sharp 93 minutes of fun!
The focus of the film relies on the narrator and newspaper journalist Bob Wilton (solid job by McGregor) describing a part of the Iraq conflict you’ve never seen, and one the military would be just fine if no one else heard of either. Clooney plays Lyn Cassady, a top of the line soldier who has a unique power, his mind is stronger than the sword. He can find missing people, he can solve the world’s questions with a twitch of the eye, or building up sweat from the brow, he is a “warrior monk.“ Wilton and Cassady come across each other through pure luck, or a script that makes them have to cross paths! After a funny description of Jedi power, a very nice touch with McGregor playing the role of Obi Wan in the latest Star Wars movies, the two are on some sort of mission of the mind.
The cast is rounded out nicely by a couple of legends with very diffirent followings. The Dude is back as Jeff Bridges brings Bill Django to life. The warm and fuzzy leader of the New Earth Army. He teaches his Warriors that there is more to solving the wrongs in the world than guns and camo, there is dancing and naked hot tub! Spacey is masterful in his dead-pan understated performance of jealous Larry Hooper. Larry tried everything he can to break up the band, then bring it all back together after Lyn and Bob barely survive a kidnapping attempt.
The writing is strong, the characters and interesting. If I had one gripe about this movie, they didn’t go quirky enough. I think they could have pushed the limits a little more. Made the major players even more out there! It’s a great lineup of actors, they do the very best they can with the script, I just had the feeling that they were chomping at the bit to get a little more. Is this film going to change the way you watch movies, nope. Is it a film that will hold the test of time, nope. Is it quirky enough to make it worth your hard earned bucks, I think so.
MT
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Posted by
on 11/09 at 09:26 PM
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