Up Stares, Down Stares

This evening, I went to see the new movie The Men Who Stare At Goats. It's a partial adaptation of a book of the same title, about various U.S. military programs that pursued the development of psychic powers in soldiers.

As the movie states in it's opening, "More of this is true than you would believe."

Be that as it may, the movie could have stood to be even more ridiculous... or more serious... or more something. It tries at times to make serious commentary about U.S. military practices. It tries at other times to be purely funny and whimsical. It tries at still other times to be just plain outrageous. And it actually doesn't fail at any of these things.

But it never really scores any major successes. As commentary, it's never biting enough. As comedy, the jokes are sometimes few and far between. As farce, the movie tries too carefully to walk the line of whether or not the main soldier, played by George Clooney, can actually do any of the things he claims.

It is a pretty good cast, though. In addition to Clooney as head loon, Jeff Bridges appears as the soldier-gone-hippie-gone-soldier that begins the psychic program. Kevin Spacey is a bit underdeveloped as the villain of the piece that envisions more nefarious uses for the program, but is good for a few laughs.

The real standout of the cast is Ewan McGregor as the reporter whose own personal desperation and uncertainty puts him in just the right state to investigate this outrageous subject and find out if there's any truth in it. Still, the movie downplays his personal journey more than it should on the dramatic side. And on the comedy side, it too often uses his presence as a crutch, knowing that because of his career, the audience is going to giggle every time he says the word "Jedi." (Which he does about a hundred times.)

Ultimately, it's not a bad movie, but it is a somewhat unfocused movie that turned out well shy of its potential. I rate it a C+.