The Men Who Stare at Goats
In this comedic look at real life events that are almost too bizarre to believe, reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) teams up with Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney) and discovers an experimental top-secret wing of the U.S. military. Here soldiers are trained to change the ways wars are fought through New Age psychic powers by passing through walls, reading the enemy's thoughts and even killing a goat by simply staring at it.
Inspired by Jon Ronson's non-fiction best-seller of the same name, this is an eye-opening and hilarious story of the government's attempts to harness soldier's paranormal abilities in order to combat its enemies.
Member Reviews
Stellar cast, clunky screenplay - Oscar81
Maybe the movie just tried too hard to be funny. Here's the premise: the army has introduced a more humane way of fighting. Forget the fighting, use your mind to defeat the enemy. It is cute in parts but too obvious in others. The special features and stories behind the making of the movie end up being more interesting than the movie.Interesting and weird - mxg123
This movie did make me laugh several times, and I liked Ewan McGregor's performance as well as George Clooney's. This movie explains some of the potential psychic experiments that the US army is/was working on. I also enjoy many of its desert scenes.The Men Who Stare at Goats - AppsScraps
Despite a stellar line up of stars, The Men Who Stare at Goats is simply too strange a film to warrant anything but passing interest. Ewan Macgregor stars as Bob Wilton, a loser journalist who ships out to Iraq to get a story that will make his girlfriend reconsider the fact he is a loser. There he meets Lyn Skip Cassady (George Clooney) who recounts a tale only a strung out San Franciscan could love of an army officer, Bill Django (a good Jeff Bridges), whose job it was to train a secret group of army misfits to be - wait for it - psychic Jedi warriors. Kevin Spacey appears being, well, Kevin Spaceylike as the Jedi warrior with a grudge, Larry Hooper. And yes, a goat dies. The film fails despite its tongue-in-cheek plot thanks solely to Macgregor who is thoroughly aggravating throughout the film. This reviewer kept hoping he'd be shot. Never a good sign, granted. Kudos to Clooney and Bridges for giving us something to focus on.
My rating 4 neahs out of 10.
Member Reviews
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Stellar cast, clunky screenplay - Oscar81
Maybe the movie just tried too hard to be funny. Here's the premise: the army has introduced a more humane way of fighting. Forget the fighting, use your mind to defeat the enemy. It is cute in parts but too obvious in others. The special features and ...Interesting and weird - mxg123
This movie did make me laugh several times, and I liked Ewan McGregor's performance as well as George Clooney's. This movie explains some of the potential psychic experiments that the US army is/was working on. I also enjoy many of its desert scenes.The Men Who Stare at Goats - AppsScraps
Despite a stellar line up of stars, The Men Who Stare at Goats is simply too strange a film to warrant anything but passing interest. Ewan Macgregor stars as Bob Wilton, a loser journalist who ships out to Iraq to get a story that will make his girlfriend ...