Men Who Stare At Goats, The

Variety Derek Elley

A superbly written loony-tunes satire, played by a tony cast at the top of its game.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

All of the actors play without winks and spins, unless you consider Lebowskism itself a wink and spin.

Empire Damon Wise

George Clooney dazzles and Jeff Bridges shines in a scattershot but often hilarious military farce.

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.

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The writing is haphazard at times, though the situations are funny enough in themselves to sustain our interest.

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.

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The go-for-broke performances help make all this paranormal activity too much fun to care.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A refreshingly unpredictable and fizzy comic fantasy. It tickles the fancy even when it strains credibility.

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.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Likable, lightweight, absurdist comedy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

By bringing the story into Iraq, Grant Heslov courts tastelessness. Gooniness and Gitmo don't mix.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Time Out New York Joshua Rothkopf

An unfocused comedy about weird Army pseudoscience, ends up blinking before we laugh.

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.

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.

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A magical-realist sitcom war farce that ends up being about nothing but its own slovenly smugness.