Featuring a formidable all-star cast The Men Who Stare at Goats has everything you would expect from a film with such a hilarious title and cast of such astounding calibre.
Initially, I was worried this film wouldn't live up to my expectations, but I couldn't have been more wrong and I apologise George Clooney!
What would you do if your wife left you for your boss, a one-armed man, nonetheless? No doubt you'd be a little upset, but whether or not you'd fly to Iraq to focus on your career as a journalist is another question all together ... yet, that's how this film begins.
Bob, is a journalist who seemingly has a lovely, happy life, that is until his wife ends up leaving him for his paraplegic boss! Blinded by rage, Bob flies to Kuwait to investigate the Iraq War (you know, to take his mind off things).
He feels his luck is about to change when he stumbles onto the story of a lifetime after meeting special forces operator, Lyn Cassady who reveals that he was part of an American army unit training psychic spies to develop a range of incredible skills including invisibility, remote viewing and walking through walls.
This impressive and somewhat bizarre unit was founded by Bill Django, who travelled across America in the 1970s exploring a range of strange cults and philosophies because of a vision he had after being shot during the Vietnam War. He used these experiences and vision to form the New Earth Army, an elite team of soldiers.
Django's best recruits were Lyn Cassady and Larry Hooper, who developed a lifelong rivalry because of their different opinions of how to implement the New Earth Army philosophy; Lyn wanted to emphasise the positive side of the teachings, whereas Larry was more interested in the dark side of the philosophy (A bit like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, only much funnier).
After the turn of the century Bob and Lyn embark on a new mission in Iraq, but end up being kidnapped by a dangerous gang. Luckily, they mange to escape and continue on their mission, which is based on an ambiguous vision Lyn has of Django.
My favourite part of the movie is when Bob and Lyn wander aimlessly in the desert and Lyn ends up revealing his terrible (yet hilariously funny) secret.
During his training, he was asked to stop a goat's heart to test the limit of his mental abilities, even though he initially decided against it, he was compelled to try. He managed to stop the goat's heart, but felt that what he did was inhumane.
After spending a few days in the desert, Bob and Lyn get rescued and rehabilitated at a camp run by a private research firm engaged in psychic experiments on a herd of goats and some captured locals. To Lyn's dismay his nemesis, Larry Hooper, runs the firm and ironically now employs an alcoholic Django (who has become a shadow of his former self).
Clooney's performance is amazing and, in itself, is enough reason to see this film. Besides, after all the money he has donated and raised for the Haitian people, the least you can do to support him is buy a ticket to this brilliant movie!
