Grant Heslov's The Men Who Stare At Goats is a film which, if you find yourself staring and investing in it for too long, can very well leave you blind. It is an extremely dumb, overtly sophomoric idea about soldiers with superpowers, or at least those who believe to have them. George Clooney plays one of these soldiers, and he mugs it up at every turn. He is a funny actor, but this is not funny material, and his routine, as the always aloof, hippified, Cassidy, gets old very quickly.
The film relies on cheap sight gags and stereotypical humor. Some examples: an obese man dies while eating a hotdog, one man's wife leaves him for a man with a freakish latex covered prosthetic arm, an intense soldier lifts weights with his scrotum, men run into walls, ad nauseum. Here is a political comedy unconcerned with comedy and reality. I'm not saying this material couldn't be funny, just that, in a film where everyone is an idiot, the viewer finds himself having to play the straight man.
The film's pacing also feels off. There are a lot of flashbacks to many years earlier, and they serve no purpose other than to provide a quick joke. For whatever reason, mustaches and long hair is supposed to be constantly humorous. That goes double for men who like to dance(in one instance, a flashback within a flashback no less, a father throws an object at his young dancing son and tells him to stop acting queer). Goofy humor can be funny, of course, but it gets old if there is no presence of a real world; there is never a sense of danger or consequence.
How does Ewan McGregor's character get into this whole mess, you ask? He wants to prove to his girlfriend that he is a brave soul. I'd rather rent Platoon from the library and return it three days late. And then we'll see who's for real.
Final Rating: 4/10 |
SPOTLIGHTS
