The Un-Movie?

Rating: 5/10 (16 May 2010)

This is an odd little movie. There are odd characters who have odd experiences in odd locations, all revolving around an odd topic. Whether this collective montage is deserving of being committed to film is questionable because the central topic cannot be explored in any substantial, relevant way for an audience.
O.k., so the military has done some research on alternative weaponry, namely psychic ability. And, o.k., there are people who have more evolved psychic powers. And, hey, wouldn't it be great if there was a way to harness psychic energy to fight a war? It sure would be a way to reduce the defense budget and it might be more humane. It might even be a way to end acts of war since our enemies wouldn't be quite sure how much we know of their plans or of the extent of our destructive potential.
But this movie is not science fiction; you are not asked to suspend belief. It's about an idea whose time has not yet come. Like cars that fly or transporters that reassemble atoms from one place to another. The funny part of the story is when this idea is given some serious attention by the military which has to appoint some unusual personality types to implement the research. The serious side of the story is the goal - war games. In between is the whack-a-do vocabulary of the characters, all New Age, Jedi, mind expanding phrases and notions. The tragedy of war is obvious; the comedy of war is much more difficult to portray even though TV's MASH and Hogan's Heroes did it. Goats doesn't do either very well simply because there is no sequence of dramatic events to hang the story on, no matter how hard the film makers try.
In the end, Goats is not comedy, drama, sci-fi, thriller, action movie, etc. It's a cork board with some random facts push-pinned to it. But I have to give this film 5 stars because of the earnestness of the actors, screenwriter, director and supporting crew who try to make it into something.