Henry Saw: The Men Who Stare At Goats

This stunk. Big time.



I've said it before and I'll say it again...there are few things worse than a bad, unfunny, comedy. That's exactly what this P.O.S. movie is. I guess it is supposed to be in the same genre as Catch-22 and Dr. Strangelove...maybe...but where those works are quite clever and satirical, The Men Who Stare at Goats is devoid of wit, or commentary, or anything to offer to the world. It's a mess.

IMDB's plot description: A reporter (Ewan McGregor), trying to lose himself in the romance of war after his marriage fails, gets more than he bargains for when he meets a special forces agent (George Clooney) who reveals the existence of a secret, psychic military unit whose goal is to end war as we know it. The founder of the unit (Jeff Bridges) has gone missing and the trail leads to another psychic soldier (Kevin Spacey) who has distorted the mission to serve his own ends...

I don't even know where to start...I wanna get this over with and get this stupid movie out of my mind so let's do this lightning round style:

- Ewan McGregor should never have left Scotland (or Danny Boyle). It's just never really clicked for him in Hollywood. Yeah, he works wonderfully as young Albert Finney in Big Fish...but that's about it. He's the worst actor in Black Hawk Down (lord that accent...), the Star Wars thing was a bit of a bust (though at least he was having fun), and he's made a super amount of bad movies (Moulin Rouge!, Eye of the Beholder, Down With Love, The Island, Stay, Deception, Angels and Demons, Amelia...that's a lot of badness). TMWSAG can go right onto that list.

- I like that George Clooney is willing to do the odd-ball part every now and then but he's just bad here. The script let's him down and it doesn't really play to the kind of humor he is good at. While Clooney is the best part of the film...he still can't even begin to salvage it.

- Jeff Bridges is just playing a version of "The Dude" but if he was in the military. Ha. Ha. Ha. It's obvious and it's tired. Bridges is always likable but this casting was just so blatant that it's all I could think about.

- Kevin Spacey...what the hell happened to Kevin Spacey? The only good thing he's done since American Beauty was some voice work in this past summer's Moon.



So the four principles are bad, the script is pedestrian (how someone thought this was actually funny is beyond me), and the direction by Grant Heslov is mildly irritating...there is no reason to see this movie. Ever.

Grade: D-

Best Scene: Jeff Bridges pretending to be a vicious drill instructor but then telling all his men to dance.