Review: The Men Who Star At Goats

If it wasn't funny enough to see Ewan McGregor deny any recognition of the word Jedi, George Clooney's performance as a dead serious real-life Jedi really got me laughing. Directed by Grant Heslov (who starred in Good Night, and Good Luck and Leatherheads) and written by Peter Straughan (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People), The Men Who Stare at Goats is a comedy about a secret military operation that honed the superpowers within select new army personnel. The real story, however, revolves around Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) as a journalist searching for a good story. After his wife leaves him for one of his co-workers, Wilton realizes his life isn't what it could be. He thus heads to Iraq to prove his manliness where he finds Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a name that came up earlier when he was interviewing a man about "remote viewing." Cassady claims to be heading into Iraq on a mission and Wilton comes along to find himself and a good story.
The film is uniquely crafted, jumping through time to tell important facts and stories that relate to the unfolding story of Bob Wilton. There were plenty of comical moments, and overall the story wasn't too shoddy. I did enjoy several moments where Cassady's powers were hinted at being real. Unfortunately, many of the comical moments relied heavily on the use of physical pain and physical comedy to achieve laughter. While it did manage to cause laughter in the audience around me, and often in me myslef, in my opinon, the movie shouldn't have relied so heavily on it. In general, the movie was no better than many of the ludicrous comedies coming out in recent years, relying on stupidity rather than wit to achieve its humorousness.
It is based on the book by Jon Ronson and had its wide released on November 6, 2009.