Not for everyone

Rating: Null/10 (21 January 2010)

This movie will definitely be filed under the "not for everyone" tab and I can imagine people in the audience hurling obscenity as frequently as the protagonist, claiming waste of time and money. The most immediate thought association I have is Clooney's other movie "The three kings". But this one is more fun.
If I were to fit it into a genre niche, I'll put it between satire and farce. Purely technically, I suppose, you can call this sci-fi, as it is about a jilted husband, a journalist who, in a desperate attempt to restore his self esteemed, hurls himself into the heated mayhem of the Desert Wars to pursuit the story of a military project to develop "psychic soldiers". Among the assortment of mind-boggling targeted "weapons" is the ability to kill a goat by demolishing its heart through an intensive stare, hence the title.
The story-telling basically follow Ewan McGregor's first-hand narration as the reporter, rich with voice-overs, of his adventures alongside the eccentric (to use an extremely mild description) of George Clooney as the star soldier of the First Earth Battalion who keeps insisting that the former has been sent to join him on a special mission by some mysterious forces. Parallel to this narration is George Clooney's linear flashback of his distinguished career. Two other A-list, more-than-mere-cameo members of the cast are Kevin Spacey playing a very cool villain of sorts and smashing Jeff Bridges as the hippie army trainer of this special squad.
As mentioned, while there are some hilarious moments and pseudo-philosophical pitches, this movie is probably too nonsensical to win the heart of the general audience. If you've heard about the delicious in-jokes on other well-known movies, don't get your expectations too high as there are only just a couple.