A Disappointing Continuation

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Well I have no words to describe this piece of art it was totally something else something that maybe a few people will understand.Some movies warms my heart and this is one of them definitely watch it.If you are a action guy it is not for you but it contains comedy as well so better give it a shot.

After seeing this movie, I could only surmise that it's some kind of disinformation film to make jokes out of what is commonly known as remote viewing. The movie portrays remote viewers as army's attempt to train soldiers to be new age hippies (seriously). From what I've read the real remote viewers were deadly effective (otherwise the government wouldn't have funded them for 23 years). But if the effectiveness of remote viewing was really conveyed, it would be disclosing one of the closely guarded secrets of US military operations. So my take after seeing the movie is that it was created to be a disinformation campaign to make the world believe that this is what remote viewing is about. None of the characters in the movie could do remote viewing. As if it didn't exist. And maybe that's the real message this movie wanted to convey.

Its not new in Hollywood to present bland silliness and satire packaged with utmost seriousness, 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' comes off initially as a potential winner from this genre. While it had the necessary humor and a stellar star-cast capable of enacting that, the script neither reaches the edginess it should have nor pushes the boundary to make this movie memorable.Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a journalist by profession and going through a professional and personal crisis that he is so desperate to get out of. When he meets Gus Lacey (Stephen Root) and hears about the US Army's 'New Earth Army' that deals with parapsychology and psychic capabilities trained by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), he knows that he encountered the story he has been waiting for that could get him out of his crisis. He meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) by chance in Iraq and tags along with him into wilderness to cover a 'mission' in action.George Clooney and Jeff Bridges have played goofy characters in the past - 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' and 'The Big Lebowski' respectively, a little disappointed that they don't share enough screen space. However it was more than compensated with some crackling chemistry and impeccable comic timing between McGregor and Clooney. While the writers, director and editors succeed in setting up an interesting plot taking cues from disjointed real events, the audience would be stuck in a never ending wait for the stakes to go up. Kevin Spacey does a character he has done a thousand times over and seems to have sleepwalked it. The production values are excellent all thanks to the big cast it boasts of, though the quality of humor is great, the jokes are a little too few and far to get wholesome entertainment. Though the director Grant Heslov is not new to Hollywood, it is still his debut of directing a major Hollywood feature and does a decent job.Watch it for the satire, crackling chemistry and comic timing between Clooney and McGregor. Feels like a meal that finished with just the appetizers.

A good-hearted film; funny, witty, with some actual criticism that works undercover of a crazy, but (partly) true story. Clairvoyance and such have been much tried to put to use while trying to rule a kingdom at the same time all throughout history, so why shouldn't the Americans and / or the Russians have a go? But the point is that - beside the point of this intelligence being real or not - there are always forces that will take it too far, or simply abuse it. Here, this force is named Larry Hopper, fortunately with the Jedi on his tail.Though I found the story a little dull and easy at times, it's overall entertaining and in its better moments even surprising and touching. I'm beginning to think I'm not much of a fan of McGregor, but I can't say I think he's a bad actor - the same goes for Spacey, I suppose. Bridges, Clooney and Lang were my favorites here. Filmicly, it was not at all superior, but not bad either.A meager 7 out of 10.