Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats

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Title: The Men Who Stare at Goats
Distributor: BBC Films
Director: Grant Heslov
Writer(s): Peter Straughan (screenplay)Jon Ronson (book)
Staring: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language, some drug content and brief nudity.
Running Time: 93 min (1 hr and 33 min)
Synopsis: A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's First Earth Battalion, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.

Other Reviews

Critics:

Roger Ebert: 2 ½ Stars
Michael Phillips: NA Stars
EW: Owen Gleiberman: F

Other Sites:

At The Movies: A.O. Scott: Skip It, Michael Phillips: Skip It
Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 58% (Rotten), Top Critics: 41% (Rotten), RT Community: 65% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 54 out of 100, Users: 4.0 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 61: (10.% A, 42.6% B, 35.0% C, 9.3% D, and 0.0% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: B- Users: C

My Review

Source Material: Based on the book of the same title by author Jon Ronson, an account of Ronson's investigation of attempts by US military forces to use psychic powers.

Acting and Dialogue: A-: For me the acting was good but then agian some bias comes into play because both Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey are by far in my top ten favorite actors.

Art Direction: C: Comedy Bland meaning this film was made for laughs and not necessarily for art.

Cinematography: C: I do like some of the different shoots used, but It too also follows the Comedy Bland style of filmmaking.

Direction: B-: It has a fun atmosphere and I think that comes from an actor turn filmmaker director, seen here.

Screenplay: B+: The story is a good one, I think some of the execution failed but most of the pop culture reference worked, well if your a Star Wars Fan. Personally the funnier lines were the clueless nature of Ewan McGregor character toward the Jedi terminology., why? Well, he play a character from the Star Wars universe for three movies know as Obi-Wan Kenobi, who is a Jedi. So LOL.

Sound and Music: B: Very Representative of the time period and content of the film.

VFX: B-: Very minor VFX were used to creat the different "powers" but nothing to extravagant.

Overall: B-: For me it works for a Comedy because I am a Star wars fan, but for the general public it won't. I think that's the case because it not a Judd Apatow style of humor.