If there is a sub-genre called bizarre black comedies, ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’ would fall into it. A completely lateral take on a psychic spy force called ‘The Jedi Warriors’ allegedly used by the United States gives you a fair bunch of laughs but mostly will get you going like, ‘What were they on?’.
The story revolves around a reporter Bob Wilton, who is escaping from the reality of a broken marriage where his wife leaves him for his editor and finds himself in Iraq with a ‘Jedi Warrior’ Lyn Cassidy as a companion. Cassidy was part of a group of psychic spies trained by the US armed forces in the 80s. The operating model of this group is to use their mind to defeat the opponent, not force. Make love not war, and smoke weed not your enemy is more like it. And of course, learn to stop the heart of a person by staring at him. Bob’s quest to shed his loser tag and Cassidy’s mission to find his old mentor, Bill Django find a common path to self realization for Bob and redemption for Cassidy, who brought upon a curse on the Jedi group when he agreed to use his powers to kill a goat. Make sense? I think not.
‘What was he on?’ George Clooney’s close friend Grant Heslov, the man who made himself famous as the hero’s sidekick in many movies such as ‘Congo’, ‘True Lies’, ‘Dante’s Peak’ blends in the 60s flower child thought into a post Vietnam reincarnation of the armed forces to give you a rose bud at the edge of an AK-47. Perhaps such a force existed to have prompted this story and perhaps some extra money existed to have funded this story to be translated to film.
‘What were they on?’ Jeff Bridges (Django), George Clooney (Cassidy), Kevin Spacey (jealous course-mate of Cassidy). I can count 4 Oscar awards for acting there with Ewan McGregor (Wilton) for support. Unfortunately, the pointlessness of the story cannot be saved by a stellar cast apart from prompting a few guffaws when you see Jeff Bridges jump off the roof of a building in a mundu or when he gets a colonoscopy done during his search for a vision. Ah what a waste of fine talent, even for a comedy!
‘What are you on?’ is a very important question to ask yourself before you see this film. It gives you good laughs here and there but is largely pointless. You may end up staring at the screen to find one.