Os Homens que Encaravam Cabras

I guess I must have had high expectations coming into this film because although I enjoyed it I was left with a sense of "it could've been much better." The soundtrack was amazing and some of the acting left me smiling (but not laughing!). There were some great moments and some classic situations but I think the problem is that it's a one joke movie and sustaining the comedy for nearly two hours was too much.

All the usual suspects put in frenzied performances, but again I felt they were trying to hard. Don't bother to go to the theater. Wait for it on DVD. You'll enjoy it much more (rather than keep thinking about the 11 bucks you just spent!).

This film tells a story about a special army unit without having a real plot as even the main characters don't seem to know where they're heading. It's just an accumulation of absurd dialogues and crazy moments with real good actors that don't consider themselves too good to act silly (not too silly) although they certainly were unchallenged by the script. The shown sense of humour reminded me slightly of the humour in the fashion of the Coen brothers in terms of pace and surreality, however, less sarcastic, less biting and without cynicism. The characters are rather likable, harmless individuals trying to find peace in a violent surrounding. I would classify this film as a satire about everything the army represents in general and once you've realized how stupid the army is you'll find this an amusing 93 minutes of fun.

Watching Grant Heslov's "The Men Who Stare at Goats" was tantamount to staring at a stick of dynamite - for 93 minutes - that never exploded. All the critical mass of a quirky, eccentric comedy (i.e., an able cast, a political pseudo-relevance) seemed to be undercut by clunky writing, tacky 'Watch people fall down, get run over, and laugh' stunts, and a painfully disjointed plot which can barely be deemed a plot at all. Rather, the movie featured more of a direction: an ill-defined, ill-conceived mission toward which two characters (Clooney's Lyn Cassady and McGregor's Bob Wilton) floated. The problem with the loose plot development, in this case, is that Clooney's chemistry with McGregor feels forced and their connection in the film equally contrived. The film was peppered with flashback (to which Bridges and Spacey owe the majority of their on-screen time) which jettisoned any chance the viewer had with feeling an investment toward the central story or its characters. In fact, the film stumbles from character to character so often that the viewer is caught juggling them under the central story arc -- and we never really care about most of them in the first place.

"The Men Who Stare at Goats" allows for some laughs and some admirable situational ironies. But don't expect the brilliance and subtlety of "The Big Lebowski" or "American Beauty."

I just got back from seeing "The Men Who Stare at Goats" at the Woodstock Film Festival. I walked in knowing the main plot, and I expected it to be pretty good because of the great actors it has, the premise of the story and the music used in the soundtrack. My expectations weren't only met, but they were greatly exceeded.

The story follows a broken-hearted journalist (McGregor) who goes on the job to Iraq to prove to his ex-wife he isn't weak or frail. There, he meets Lyn Cassidy (Clooney) who is a "psychic" soldier for the US government, trained by his hippie instructor Billy (Bridges) to use his mind, peace and love to overcome hairy military situations. The story is the two mens' adventure together.

The movie is essentially broken down into I'd say 3 parts. The first part is the main story of the journalist and Lyn as they travel in Iraq on a special mission Lyn is on. The second is the very humorous back-story of the history of the creation and existence of the "psychic soldiers" of the military. When I say "back-story" and "history" I mean the main background to Lyn and Billy's character, as well as the main antagonist of the story, played by Kevin Spacey. The third part is the first person narration provided by Ewen McGregor about the things that are going on. He offers insight into his mind and opinions on the things he says and of himself and Lyn as the story progresses.

The Men Who Stare at Goats is a very hilarious movie, with many quotable lines and excellent acting by the entire cast. The story is very unique and the film uses that as a great advantage to itself in setting up the humor. The characters are very real and are taken to heart right away. The film is funny, intriguing, smart, witty, fast-paced, emotional, enjoyable and inspirational. I highly recommend it to any Ewen McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey or Jeff Bridges fan, for fans of those men will not be disappointed with the acting and mannerisms of the characters those actors portrayed.

The Men Who Stare at Goats is a very fun movie to see in theaters and everyone in my audience were cracking up laughing many, many times. It is a movie for casual movie goers and film aficionados alike. Go see it.

8.5/10

Well, I must say that I was looking forward to this movie - after reading the cast list and hearing a brief overview of the plot I felt that it had good potential. And whoever made the trailer did a very good job of making me want to see it.

Unfortunately, there seemed to me to be a certain amount of confusion about the film - were the directors entirely sure what type of film they were making? There are elements of comedy, satire, drama, action... but without having enough of each of these things to really give the movie a proper feel or direction. It veers close to being funny... and then veers off. It comes close to satirising American military tactics... and then goes off in another direction. I felt that a little more focus was needed overall to bring the film together.

In terms of acting, I think that generally the actors can be pleased with their work - I don't remember any specific cases of over or underacting, and the characters were about as believable as they could be in a film like this. As far as the comedy goes - this film was primarily marketed as a comedy - there are some genuinely funny moments! Overall, however, I felt that some bits needed to be trimmed down - the constant Jedi references were funny the first time but quickly wear thin.

The plot also needed a little bit of work: it started off with a promising storyline, and good editing I might add, but seemed to lose its way towards the end. It seemed as if the film-makers didn't really know where to go next. There were a few scenes that really didn't need to be included either - Robert Patrick's contribution to the film really added nothing, and could easily be removed. It was entirely forgettable and was simply a device to get the characters to the next place that they needed to be.

Overall I'd say this this is a fairly good film, certainly worth seeing. As for buying the DVD, that I'm not so sure about. If you're looking for a way to spend and hour and a half of your evening, while there are better films to see than this there are also considerably worse ones.