The Men Who Stare at Goats

Rumors of secret psychic warfare projects are the basis for The Men Who Stare at Goats. An often-broad comedy spoofing everything from men’s movement nostrums to ecological good sense, and anything with a whiff of hippie idealism or New Age mysticism, Men Who Stare is often funny if dubious in some of its social implications. A trio of stars having a grand time in their roles, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey, considerably elevates the film. None of them happens to play the film’s hapless protagonist, a bumbling journalist covering the Iraq invasion depicted by Ewan McGregor. Men Who Stare’s sharpest satire is directed against the war, especially the mercenaries and buzzards who profited from the invasion.