'The Men Who Stare At Goats'

'The Men Who Stare At Goats' (R) **

Writer: Peter Straughan from a novel by Jon Ronson
Director: Grant Heslov
Starring: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Lang

I love original movies and I love black comedies for I have a wicked sense of humor and I like fresh outlooks on familiar movie subjects. "The Men Who Stare At Goats" is a wacky black comedy and a different look at war movies. It resembles something like the movie "Mash" and my favorite War film "Three Kings". "Goats has great characters and great individual scenes but can't quite come together for something truly magical and hilarious. The set up is great as newspaper reporter McGregor tries to track down a story about a secret army unit of psychic soldiers who use the mind to kill instead of weapons. He tracks down a soldier played wonderfully by George Clooney. What a wonderful career Clooney is building! He is becoming a great actor and one of our best movie stars. He is also I think the smartest man in the movie business and I don't think he has made one film that I thought was bad. He always picks challenging characters and he is perfect here. The movie also has another dependable and outstanding performance by the great Jeff Bridges (in my top five best actors). Here he is in "Big Lebowski" mode but to show how great Bridges is he makes this character somehow different. Kevin Spacey is also hilarious in a small role but I didn't find this movie as good as it could have been. First I think the McGregor character is weak and a distraction. I wish there were more scenes between Clooney, Bridges, Spacey and the great character actor Lang and I felt there could have been more scenes like that. I like the beginning half hour and the last half hour but found the middle boring. This movie made me laugh but there is something missing and I think the screenplay could have been polished more. There is a classic comedy trying to get out but it doesn't quite make it but then again this could become a cult classic.