Film Snail

The Men Who Stare at Goats
The Men Who Stare at Goats

6.0

The Men Who Stare at Goats

R·2009·94m

Summary

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 New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.

Crew

Director

Grant Heslov

Novel

Jon Ronson

Screenplay

Peter Straughan

Reviews

narrator56

narrator56

April 5, 2020

7

Considering the star power here (Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey) I can understand why people might feel somewhat disappointed when they watch it. I mean, the description even mentions the Coen brothers as a basis for comparison. With Jeff Bridges' role, it was difficult not to think of The Big Lebowski, but this film isn't of that caliber.

Still, I thought it was entertaining most of the time. There were slow interludes that could have been removed to improve the pacing without harming the story. But if you understand that they aren't going for laugh out loud gags or one-liners, but rather they work for their punch lines or leave you to figure out where the joke is, maybe you can appreciate it more.

I will say that the plot seemed a bit disjointed to me. The flashbacks weren't confusing, but in a slower paced film like this one, I think they were sometimes more of a distraction than plot-enhancers. The ending also had an air of an anticlimax to it, like - oh, okay. I guess it fit the laid back mood of the rest of the movie, but they might have done more with it.

Still, I liked it. Enough said.

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$24,000,000.00

Revenue:

$68,729,358.00

Keywords

vietnam veteran
kuwait
new age
paranoid fantasy
hippie lifestyle
drug use