Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Men Who Stare at Goats

The Men Who Stare at Goats doesn't come together as a movie. This is going to be a short review because I just summed up what you need to know.

The idea is interesting. A reporter discovers that the U.S. Army had a project that was investigating psychic abilities. These "Jedi Warriors" may or may not have actually had psychic powers. The movie wobbles on whether they really do or not. That's one of the weaknesses of the movie. They don't leave you wondering whether they do or know - that would be cool. But they sorta do, just a bit, but maybe no, not really.

Is it a comedy? Is it trying to give a message of some sort? You never really know after watching the movie. If it was a comedy, all the funny parts were in the trailers. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but that attitude makes the movie seem a bit lazy. If there is a message, I wasn't interested in discovering what it was.

Things happen in the movie for no particular reason. The ending didn't make sense. There were too many characters to make it into a personal story about any one of them.

It isn't a bad move - there are parts to like. It's just a lazy movie. I left The Men Who Stare at Goats thinking, "Eh? Who cares?" I think everyone had the same thought while making the movie.

1 comment:

Andrew Nolan said...

I saw some documentary footage on the dude this was based on. I don't know that the film marketed that aspect enough- that some crazy motherfucker U.S. General actually believed this shit was possible and started a program to figure it out.