quirky dark comedy

Rating: 6/10 (12 December 2015)

Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a small town reporter told to interview psychic Gus Lacey (Stephen Root). Gus claims to have been in a special psychic unit in the U.S. Army. They were trained to kill psychically and one time they killed a goat by staring at it. Bob's wife (Rebecca Mader) leaves him for his editor. During the Iraq war, he's stuck in Kuwait waiting for permission where he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney). Gus had previously mentioned Lyn as the skipper of the secret unit. After getting shot in Vietnam, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) started investigating other ways to fight wars. Years of living with hippies leads him to start the New Earth Army. Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) is intend on using the findings for the dark side.
The movie takes the quirky material and adds very little. The actors are sincere. Bridges brings a little bit of his inner Lebowski. Clooney is a little manic. McGregor is the wide-eye semi-loser. The characters are likable enough but the movie lacks bigger laughs. It's a lot of quirky stuff. It's not real enough to be compelling and it's not surreal enough to be fun. It's on the same path as Dr Strangelove but it's nowhere near as good. Director Grant Heslov is a relative novice and this needs better talents like the Coen brothers to pull it together.