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Men Who Stare At Goats, The
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 57 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | War
Written by: Peter Straughan
Directed by: Grant Heslov
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 6, 2009
Running Time: 93 minutes, Color
Origin: USA | UK
Summary
RATING: R for language, some drug content and brief nudity
Starring George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, Rebecca Mader, and Terry Serpico
Reporter Bob Wilton is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady, a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of "Warrior Monks" with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy's thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program's founder, Bill Django, has gone missing and Cassady's mission is to find him. (Overture Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Variety Derek Elley
A superbly written loony-tunes satire, played by a tony cast at the top of its game.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
All of the actors play without winks and spins, unless you consider Lebowskism itself a wink and spin.
Read Full Review >Empire Damon Wise
George Clooney dazzles and Jeff Bridges shines in a scattershot but often hilarious military farce.
Read Full Review >Premiere Mark Salisbury
An often highly amusing comedy in the vein of "Catch 22" and "Dr Strangelove," this lively satire looks destined for future cult status. Great soundtrack, too.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The film is more than a little odd but it has fun with its offbeat premise and moves along breezily until it gets bogged down in the third act.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The writing is haphazard at times, though the situations are funny enough in themselves to sustain our interest.
Read Full Review >St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams
This jam-packed picture is too zippily scripted and edited to get stuck in message mode, yet the stellar cast achieves a rare harmonic convergence.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Has a glorious good time satirizing the extravagant lengths to which the military and intelligence establishments will go if they think there's a payoff at the other end.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The go-for-broke performances help make all this paranormal activity too much fun to care.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
A refreshingly unpredictable and fizzy comic fantasy. It tickles the fancy even when it strains credibility.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Still worth watching because it provides a showcase for a group of actors who really appreciate this kind of farcical comedy.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Deborah Young
Even if The Men Who Stare at Goats is not worth comparing to "Dr. Strangelove," it should satisfy audiences with its great cast and patent absurdities, coated in quaint nostalgia for the happy hippie days of yore.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
This is a movie about a “New Earth Army” full of misfit soldiers yearning for a chance to be non-conformists with a cause, which means it’s already two-thirds of the way to being awesome. Had Heslov eased back a bit, Goats might’ve made it the rest of the way.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
There is Clooney’s deceptively layered performance, some startling bits of laugh-out-loud absurdity, and the not-at-all-negligible pleasure to be had in a cockeyed point of view.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
There are moments of levity throughout the film, but it’s made with pedestrian craft and feels more like a set-up and a series of vignettes than a compelling yarn. Chiefly, it demonstrates just how accomplished the Coens are even when their films seem offhanded and easy.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
This is the anti-"Hurt Locker" experience: Where that Iraq War film was absorbing and deadly serious, The Men Who Stare at Goats is irreverent and lighthearted. One only wishes it were a more consistently funny film.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Content to be sparkly when it should be sharp-edged and shrewd; it has the potential to roar like a lion, but instead it lays lambs at our feet.
Read Full Review >Film Threat James Teitelbaum
It is frustrating to see this much raw talent on the screen, not to mention behind the camera, and to have had these people produce something that hints at so many complex things, but ultimately fails to deliver on them. It’s just a comedy, then. So be it, Jedi.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
Clooney gives it everything, but what does he get in return? A void where the story is meant to be.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
By bringing the story into Iraq, Grant Heslov courts tastelessness. Gooniness and Gitmo don't mix.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
What's impressive about Clooney in The Men Who Stare at Goats is how he marries his goofy, comic side with his dramatic side.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
When the haze wears off and the movie grounds itself in reality, it's a bummer. Until then, though, what's weird here is gloriously weird.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
These Stooges-like antics are more about showing what good sports his stars are than honing any real satiric edge.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Clooney and Bridges model an assortment of wigs and facial hair as they labor to put across their outsize characters; at its best the movie recalls a subpar episode of M*A*S*H.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
You can’t make this stuff up, but you can botch the telling of it, and that’s what sinks this satiric drama.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Much of The Men Who Stare at Goats is indeed amusing, although mostly in a mild, setting-the-stage kind of way, and your smiles eventually turn to yawns.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Despite a backbeat of perky music and the sarcastic voiceover meant to lubricate the action, The Men Who Stare at Goats lacks pizzazz. The movie isn't funny enough to work as farce, but it's far too dippy to take seriously.
Read Full Review >Time Out New York Joshua Rothkopf
An unfocused comedy about weird Army pseudoscience, ends up blinking before we laugh.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
There's no doubt we need more movies for grown-ups, with jokes that don't hit us over the head, but The Men Who Stare at Goats doesn't fit the bill. At best, it might hypnotize you into a stupor.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
You may wonder if this screen version of the book of the same name is as unfunny and strangely mushy as it seems, but trust your instincts.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
At the end, as I stumbled back onto the street as disoriented and grateful as a released POW, I thought I'd need a calendar to calculate the length of time I'd been away.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
A magical-realist sitcom war farce that ends up being about nothing but its own slovenly smugness.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 57 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Carolyn M gave it an8:
My husband and I loved this. It's completely wacky, yet based on a period of time when the US military seriously investigated paranormal approaches to war. Great performances that leave you wondering, "Are they crazy? Am I?"
Chad S. gave it a5:
The New Earth Army manual is all theory; it's never put into practice. If it did, then maybe this anti-war satire would get out of first gear. "The Men Who Stare At Goats" wastes a golden opportunity to expound on the famous "Dr. Strangelove" line: "Gentleman, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room," which was delivered by Peter Sellers(as the president) in the 1964 Stanley Kubrick classic. There's no payoff to Bill Django's conceit that such countercultural ideals of his could accomodate the millitary's predilection for sanctioned violence. In the hands of a more daring filmmaker, one who was willing to rewrite war history(ala Quentin Tarantino), all that "hippie crap"(what Larry Hooper, played by Kevin Spacey, Django's teachings) would be a lot more potent as satire if the special unit's peace and love played a part(positive or negative) in the outcome of our country's skirmishes. The New Ageism that defines the psy-ops program is funny, but one-note in its presentation, because the New Earth Army soldiers never use their special training in a real world situation. The movie is much too preoccupied with the power struggle between Django and Hooper. Lyn Cassady(George Clooney) needs a more dynamic mission than the one the film gives him. "The Men Who Stare at Goats" could have explored the idea of a peace movement as being more than symbolic. For example, a soldier, not some hippie chick at an anti-war demonstration, could stick a flower in the barrel of a gun. But Cassady and Bob(Ewan McGregor) are nowhere near the war. The film needs a second gear. Django needs a venue for his "hippie crap".
Jim R. gave it a2:
Interesting idea, but the writers left all humor out of the script.
Max E. gave it a1:
Not worth seeing. Story is so poorly told it is hard to follow.
Dana M. gave it a2:
Run, don't walk from this movie! I haven't walked out of a movie in years, but this was unbearable. Great cast but awful story. Don't waste your money.
Susan M. gave it a3:
There may be a funny moment or two, but in its absurdity, there's nothing to hold on to.
Norm G. gave it a4:
What I saw was one long steady fast paced unrelenting one-premise stream of goofiness that in the final analysis just isn’t funny enough. The Men Who Stare at Goats doesn’t pay off. The ending is weak. I am not sure anyone will get this film’s humor . . certainly not the guy in front of me who told his date he needed LSD to understand the movie. (spoiler: LSD plays a roll in the big crescendo scene). I have seen Clooney, Bridges and Spacey in much funnier stuff. If you don’t know what films I am talking about let me know. I will supply you with some titles so you can avoid this turkey.
