The men who stare at goats

Director: Grant Heslov

Cast: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Lang

Year: 2009

Genre: Comedy

Rating:

Cinema-Reader – 7.1
IMDB – 6.9
FilmAffinity – 6.9


Cinema-Reader Synopsis:

A reporter looking desperately for a story and which life is falling apart after being dumped by his wife (Ewan McGregor) finds himself involved in a crazy and secret mission in the middle of Iraqi desert along Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a former US army soldier working for a secret government unit.

He will be handling what a first sight seems his lifetime opportunity to straight his upside-down career.

However, he’ll soon realise that this unit under Larry Hooper’s command (Kevin Spacey) is a bit strange as they are developing completely different military techniques.

Supported on researches carried on by a nuts and hippie stylist General Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), this unit tries to create the ultimate warrior training soldiers in the usage of psychical powers using goat as targets.

Cinema-Reader Review:

After checking the cast, the viewer can expect some more than actually gets.

Clooney manages this kind of roles quite brilliantly as seen before in previous examples like “O Brother, Where are you?”, and McGregor has a natural talent to connect with people making him being just simply funny.

However, and besides the script (an adaptation of the book by Jon Robson), the movie doesn’t get let say the standards required for being a reference in the genre. What’s more, won’t be even remembered as one of the best movies of the year.

Is a pity because it has all ingredients for success.

However, without the proper blend, the outcome resulting is not attractive enough.