|
Capsule reviews of films opening this week:
"The Men Who Stare at Goats" — A fun tone is undermined by disjointed storytelling in George Clooney and producing partner Grant Heslov's romp based on Jon Ronson's amusing nonfiction book about the U.S. military's research into psychic warfare and espionage. First-time director Heslov crafts a hit-and-miss fictional narrative ornamented with some of the brighter anecdotes Ronson uncovered about efforts to create warrior monks who try to walk through walls or glare animals to death. Clooney plays a prodigy of this New Age militarism, with Jeff Bridges as his Dude-like mentor, Kevin Spacey as a psychic rival and Ewan McGregor as a reporter uncovering the story amid the war in Iraq. The movie opens with the promise of a Catch-22 or Strangelove-style satire, but while it maintains much of the book's drolly incredulous spirit, the dots of absurdity just don't connect that well. With "Star Wars" vet McGregor on hand, the repeated Jedi knight references are jarring. R for language, some drug content and brief nudity. 93 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
_ David Germain, AP Movie Writer
|
|