Eka Herlyanti Cute title and a bit funny and mysterious. The cinematography is good. But I didn't really get the story. I guess this movie wants the war and any kind of violence to end? I wonder if that kind of power shown in this movie does exist. And why goats? That one goat in the end of the movie looked angry. What's wrong with him?

NateWatchesCoolMovies There's a scene early on in The Men Who Stare at goats where hapless General Dean Hopgood (Stephen Lang) attempts a platform 9 & 3 quarters style sprint towards a solid wall, in attempt to use 'psychic abilities' he is being taught at a hush-hush military base. He smashes headlong into it, and in the most deadpan drawl, mutters "damn" in all seriousness. This one moment sort of sums up the absurd vibe that thrums throughout the whole film. It's kind of like a Coen Brothers thing; you either get it or you don't. This film isn't quite as hilarious as it's sister, Burn After Reading, but damn if it doesn't try, and come out with some really weird and memorable stuff. It's colorful hogwash that the cast sells with the enthusiasm of a drunken used car salesman, and speaking of cast, wow there are a lot of heavy hitters playing in the sandbox here. George Clooney, in yet another of his patented lovable goof roles, plays Lyn Cassidy, a former US Army nutjob who claims to have been a part of a clandestine program called the New Earth Army, employing paranormal powers in their missions. Bemused journalist Ewan McGregor is shanghai'd into following him on a mad goose chase to find out if any of his stories are true, but mostly just to babysit him, as he's kind of a walking disaster. Ineptitude reaches a breaking point when we meet pseudo hippie Bill Django, played by Jeff Bridges who channels every other oddball role he's done for maximum effect. Bill headed up the program until he got stymied by opposing official Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), a tight ass skeptic with no patience for such silliness. In fact, one must have a huge tolerance for such silliness to sit through this, and a sense of humour just south of normal to appreciate what it has to offer. I have both, and greatly enjoyed it, despite being thoroughly bewildered. Watch for Stephen Root, Glenn Moreshower, Rebecca Mader, Nick Offerman and good old Robert Patrick in a cameo as some sort of vague spy dude. A clown show to rival a high school play, no doubt, and I mean that as a compliment.

Matthew Kresal There is an old saying that truth is stranger than fiction. It is perhaps no surprise then that filmmakers have often found inspiration in true events in bringing stories to the screen. In what is definitely a case of "stranger than fiction" is The Men Who Stare At Goats, the 2009 film depicting the military's attempt to harness the forces of the paranormal in the name of national security. The results, like the film itself, are quite surprising.Going into the film, it's worth remembering that the credits state that it is "Inspired By The Book The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson". Like many a fact based film before it the film combines characters, events and locations together to create something that can fit more easily into a ninety-three minute package. Keeping that in mind though doesn't mean that the film is a complete work of fiction. On the contrary, many of the events shown in the film have a serious basis in reality. These include the New Earth Army, remote viewing programs (including the specific example used in the film) and indeed the film's very title. While the more "present day" elements are certainly more fictitious than other parts of the film, the film largely portrays real events within its more fictional context.Keeping all that in mind, there's plenty of enjoy about the film as a whole. The performances throughout are solid, playing up the absurd nature of the events being portrayed. Ewan McGregor as Bob Wilton (a character apparently inspired by author Jon Ronson" is the viewer's in-way to events and acts as narrator as well as participant. George Clooney is Lyn Cassady with whom McGregor's Wilton spends much of his time with and whom we see through decades of his life in a performance that Clooney plays perfectly on the fine line that constantly leaves Wilton and the viewer alike wondering about his sanity. Much the same can be said of Jeff Bridges as the New Earth Army's founder Bill Django (based on the real-life Jim Channon) and which Bridges is perfectly cast to play. The film's supporting cast is strong as well including Kevin Spacey, Stephen Lang, Robert Patrick, Stephen Root and Waleed Zuaiter who all play up or down the comedy in their scenes to great success.The film, as a production, is solid as well. Peter Straughan's script finds the right balance of parody, comedy and occasional seriousness which sets much of the film's tone and that director Grant Heslov brings to the screen wonderfully. The film covers a large span of time from 1972 Vietnam to 2004 Iraq, a challenge that production designer Sharon Seymour and costumer Louise Frogley do a splendid job of bringing to life. If Straughan and Heslov create a quirky sense of tone, it's Seymour and Frogley who give it the sense of reality that makes it all the more incredible to watch. The result is a quirky, odd but definitely funny hour and a half. With an excellent cast and solid production values, it brings us the tale of the absurd measures that members of the US military went to test and use the paranormal with often surprising results. While not perhaps for all tastes, The Men Who Stare At Goats does prove one thing: that truth is more certainly stranger than fiction.

tieman64 Directed by Grant Heslov, and based on a Jon Ronson book by the same name, "The Men Who Stare At Goats" stars Ewan McGregor as a journalist who travels to Kuwait and then Iraq during the 2003 Iraq War."Goats" is typically read as either a comedy or a piece of investigative journalism. What it also is, though, is a very calculated political statement. It's plot is essentially this: after the Vietnam War, a series of US soldiers lose faith in the United States and begin to see it as a violent, callous nation. They thus promptly become hippies, pacifists and New Age activists. Banding together, they then form the First Earth Battalion, a military unit which fights with "love" and for "peace". The Batalion's attempts to undermine the US military-industrial-complex from within, however, fail completely; the military co-opts and perverts everything with its own overarching ethos.Significantly, the Battalion's soldiers, who are a team of bizarre psychic warriors, are named after the Jedi knights from George Lucas' "Star Wars". Like that franchise's heroes (one of which Ewan McGergor also played), they then find themselves having to make an ethical choice; choose between their "dark" and "light" sides. The film then ends with various Jedi feeling guilty for "killing goats", "animals" which Ronson turns into a symbol for any and all civilians and soldiers killed and tortured by the US war machine. The Jedi thus choose to "set the goats" free, a moral act which goes punished."The Men Who Stare At Goats" stars Jeff Bridges as Bill Django, a character lovingly modelled on Bridges' now-iconic Jeffrey Lebowski. The film's soundtrack ("I See You", "More Than a Feeling", "I had a Dream", "Wishing and Hoping") encapsulates a very 1960s desire for social change, a yearning which the film's climax both satiates and is sceptical of. Some have found Heslov's characters too cartoonish (the film purports to be based on a true story), but his hippies are merely the logical flip side to a military-industrial-complex that is over-funded, wholly absurd and spiritually vacuous. "Goats" was Heslov's feature length debut.8/10 – Worth one viewing.