Bizarre psychedelic and totally worthwhile!

Rating: 7/10 (22 February 2010)

This is truly a bizarre film, and if you are looking for a satisfying and well structured Narrative you will be sorely disappointed. However if you open your mind and allow your imagination to flow freely with the directors, then you will surely enjoy this psychedelic, progressive mind trip.
Its not a war film, its a buddy film that uses War as its backdrop. The constant LSD references perhaps give the audience a clue that this is in fact a trip within a trip. Maybe the story is a mans escape into his own imagination to avoid navigating a broken heart. Perhaps the characters in the story are the types of men that Bob Wilten (mcGregors character) wishes he was in order to better deal with his failed relationship and the story is merely a way of keeping his own mind occupied in order to shutout the pain of loosing his girlfriend to his editor. Its too lazy to be considered a political satire and too weird to be considered a vanilla comedy, although there are plenty of jokes and slapstick thrown into the mix. All of which serve to spice up this very funny movie. For every joke you miss or don't get, there will be someone in the theater that does. It's nice to be in a cinema and hear laughter come from different parts of the room at different times. Kind of like a surround sound laughter track.
The acting is superb from everyone and its pure joy to see Jeff bridges almost revive his 'dude' character from "The Big Lebowski", and equally fun to watch Clooney use everything he learned from the Cohen brothers to spectacular effect. As if the title wasn't enough to give it away "The men who stare at goats" is a bizarre film that has enough depth for multiple viewings and i believe it will be appreciated a little more when the desert dust settles.