You Don't Need an Oscar to Be the Standout in This Movie

Rating: 5/10 (2 June 2010)

An only fitfully funny comedy about a journalist (Ewan McGregor) who teams up with an ex-special agent (George Clooney) when he (the journalist) suspects that there's quite a scoop to be found in the agent's history. The film obviously thinks we're going to think it's quite a scoop too, as it employs all manner of self-consciously cutesy hijinks in telling its story about a unit of the U.S. armed forces that tried to harness psychic powers (among other things) in finding non-violent means of combat. The problem is that the story lurches along in fits and starts; the screenwriter stops the flow of action every five minutes or so to give us backstory, some of it relevant, some of it not. As a result, neither narrative thread ever has a chance to build any momentum, and though the running time of the film is tight (a mere 90 minutes) it feels like it meanders on forever.
I guess we're supposed to be tickled by the sight of well-known and Oscar-winning actors (like Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey in addition to Clooney) goofing off, but it's the lone non-Oscar winning member of the cast (McGregor) who comes off best.
My parents reviled this movie and had me prepared for a stinker. It's certainly not terrible, but it's not really very good either.
Grade: Pretty much the definition of a solid "C" effort