It pleased at least one audience

Rating: 7/10 (11 November 2009)

The press reviews of this movie have been somewhat indifferent but the trailer appealed, so I went to see it in a fairly full theatre. I think the audience was very much in the mood for this particular movie, for there was a lot of laughing out loud. And this is fair enough, because there is a lot of humour in it - dialogue, character, situation and slapstick.
The plot - purportedly true-ish - concerns efforts to set up a US army section trained in psychic arts. This is referred to frequently as Jedi training, and I could have done without the burst of conversation the first time this arose as a large sprinkling of blokes in the audience explained to their girlfriends the irony of George Clooney explaining to Ewan Obi-Wan Kenobi what a Jedi is. What might appear to be a fairly limited idea is developed well, with real time and flashback proceeding side by side, and a final act which goes in an unanticipated direction.
Clooney, McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey all play this somewhat daft material for all it's worth. My vote - quite good fun, albeit not a movie of major significance. A great title, though!