Friday, Nov. 06, 2009

'The Men Who Stare at Goats': It's looney, until it runs out of steam

With a dash of "M*A*S*H," a pinch of "Dr. Strangelove" and a sprinkling of "Catch-22," "The Men Who Stare at Goats" adheres to the grand tradition of loopy military parodies.

Yet, for all its flakiness, the movie can't sustain its daffy momentum, and runs out of steam after about an hour. While there are inspired laugh-out-loud moments, and a couple lines of dialogue are among this year's most hilarious, on the whole, the movie never achieves the offbeat nirvana it could have.

Normally, if you mention George Clooney and Jeff Bridges, I'm there, no matter what. And Ewan McGregory and Kevin Spacey are usually interesting as well. They appear to have had a blast making this movie. I just wish we could have had a better time watching it. The film should have been funnier.

The ingredients are there -- a hippy-dippy Army man, preaching peace and love instead of pain and death, trains a super-secret special unit to tune in to their psychic powers.

This may sound far-fetched, but it could be true. Based on Jon Ronson's 2004 book on military intelligence, apparently the government conducted paranormal exercises to see if our spies could benefit from such methods.

George Clooney, in full goofball mode, plays Lyn Cassady, a talented special forces operative. He's clearly one taco short of a combination plate. He takes an eager but hapless journalist, Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), under his wing in Kuwait City, and then "The Men Who Stare at Goats" becomes essentially a buddy road trip movie.

The time is 2003, and they are in the desert. The reporter wants to redeem himself with a war experience. Clooney is giving Bob his Jedi Warrior pitch, and of course, it's an ironic in-joke, for McGregor played a young Obi-Wan Kenobe in the three "Star Wars" prequels.

They meet up again with Cassady's arch-rival, the ambitious snake Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), as well as his cuckoo mentor, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), a long-haired New Age guru in combat attire.

We must be told the backstory in flashbacks, which goes way back to 1972 and the Vietnam War, where a shot soldier (Bridges) has an epiphany about changing the U.S. war gameplan. He promotes his way of thinking for a New Earth Army: We must be the first superpower to use super powers.

Absurd? You betcha. It's a trippy throwback to '70s-style spoofs. It's also a tad denser than it needed to be. Director Grant Heslov, part of Clooney's previous production teams and co-writer of "Good Night, and Good Luck," is at the helm here.

Both Clooney and Bridges prompt comparisons to their work in the Coen Brothers' classics "O Brother, Where Art You?" and "The Big Lebowski," respectively. They demonstrate fantastic comic timing and allow themselves to look downright strange. Bridges urging Clooney to "Free the Dance!" is as bizarre as it sounds, not to mention the goat-starring incidents.

No matter how good the cast is, the silly story just isn't enough. The movie certainly has its moments, but given what could have been, overall it's disappointing.

2 1/2 stars

Starring: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey

Director: Grant Heslov

Length: 1:33

Rating: R for strong language, brief nudity, drug use.

Should You Go? Watch your mind.