The Men Who Stare At Goats

If you've got a proven cast and a good story then you're more than half way to making a good film. The Men Who Stare At Goats has an excellent cast with the likes of George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey and it has a story that's quite out there.

Thankfully the script gives the strong cast plenty to work with.

McGregor plays journalist Bob Wilton, a small town reporter who decides to ship himself off to Iraq when he is heartbroken by his wife leaving him for his editor.

When he arrives in the Middle East he is stranded in Kuwait until he meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney). The mention of a name from Lyn's past uncovers the story of a lifetime for Wilton.

Lyn is a member of a rather odd section of the army involved in psychic warfare. He believes he can manipulate people, animals and situations with his mind.

This leads to a number of hilarious situations as Lyn and Bob travel to Iraq. They are kidnapped, saved by a security service at war with another security service and other odd occurrences.

Along the way Lyn tells the story of how he came to be recruited into the New Age Army, led by a very hippy Bill Django (Bridges), and learned the power of the mind. Among the things he learned was how to kill a goat by staring at it and willing it to happen.

Spacey emerges as Lyn's nemesis, Larry Hooper, who has his own hilarious story involving his experiment with another officer using LSD.

Look, overall this is a really fun movie. It's well acted, as you would expect, and the references to the New Age Army as Jedi Warriors are marvellous when you consider McGregor's casting (in case I have to point it out, McGregor played jedi master Obe Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels).

A very clever comedy. A 7.5 out of 10.