Laugh Out Loud Funny; Claims to be True

Rating: 7/10 (7 November 2009)

"Men Who Stare at Goats" is a sweet, lighthearted, fun movie. I laughed out loud and I heard others in the theater laughing, as well. This account of a secret army program whose goal is to train men to use the psychic power of their minds to defeat their enemies, or to kill goats, claims to be true; I have no idea if it is. In any case, the cast is just perfect. George Clooney has never been so sexy and so funny, and also so poignant; it's amazing he can be all three at the same time. Ewan MacGregor is perfect as his wide-eyed apprentice. No one does suave evil as well as Kevin Spacey – although Claude Reins could have given him a run for his money. It would be so cool to be able to see them both in a film at the same time. Spacey does seem a bit disengaged; he's so good at suave evil, he could just phone it in. But he's still Spacey. Jeff Bridges is an older, fatter, uniformed version of the Dude from the Big Lebowski. This isn't a deep, profound, or memorable movie. It's just deadpan fun and cute.