So much talent...so little movie. A true non-starter

Rating: 2/10 (28 November 2009)

I've read many of the positive comments here but for the life of me the only word that hit me as I left the theater was, "Ishtar." For those of you who don't know or don't remember, Ishtar was a Warren Beatty film - also including a desert - that is on everyone's top 3 all-time worst movies. Maybe "Men Who Stare at Goats," (Great Title!! 1 Star for that) isn't "Ishtar" but only because it's shorter.
This is a non-movie. No premise for the movie, no rationale for the purposeless trip the main characters take, nothing that draws you into it. There were some funny routines but, honestly, I sat motionless through them still wondering what kept me sitting in my seat other than I brought two other people with me. But the funny bits (which, by the way, were not nearly as funny as, say, Steve Martin's routines in "Roxanne) were surrounded by lots and lots of really dead space, weak dialog and routines that start but never fully materialze.
Clooney seems to be trying to recreate "O Brother Where Art Thou" but there are no believable characters to anchor the film (and NO music!). And his comrade on his journey, a loser reporter played listlessly by Ewan McGregor, is neither funny enough, nor pathetic enough to carry the part. His range falls short of slapstick comedy by a lot.
Then there's the "social" message. The Iraq War, torture, arrogant Blackwater types sprinkled in as if to make this a funny movie that's really an angry movie. But it's not; and it's not enough; and the irony, the dichotomy is not handled well. Not succinct like "Catch-22" and not heart wrenching like "Life is Beautiful."
No, this movie just bounces around but it doesn't bounce high enough or often enough and it certainly didn't take me along for the ride.