Just the one review today I'm afraid, but it's of a very fun film that stars the unofficial 'King of the Festival' George Clooney (he's also got the new film 'Up In The Air' from 'Juno' director Jason Reitman screening on Sunday).

'The Men Who Stare At Goats' is based on a book by Jon Ronson, which, in turn, accompanied the Channel 4 television series 'Crazy Rulers of the World'. The main thrust of this adaptation is learning about the U.S. Military's experiments to create psychic 'super-soldiers' code-named 'Jedi Knights', we follow a broken down reporter (played by Ewan McGregor with a wobbly American accent) who finds himself in the company of a former psychic spy Lyn Cassady (George Clooney landing somewhere between his roles in 'Three Kings' and 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?').

Their journey across Iraqi desert is really just a device to allow multiple flashbacks to Cassday's experiences being trained under the tuition of Bill Django (played with relish by Jeff Bridges adding a nice touch of the flowery to his stoner-Dude persona). It is within these montages that the film has its biggest laughs, and furthermore in Cassaday's attempted application of these methods on their journey. Many of these are somewhat broad, but nonetheless very funny, even moreso for their purported basis in truth; for example we open with a military general attempting to run through a wall and build towards the titular incident in which a soldier is tasked to kill a goat using only the power of his thoughts.

Outside of this the film is rather flimsy on plot, there are a few dollops of character rivalries thrown in with the presence of Kevin Spacey as a sociopathic failed sci-fi author turned psychic spy, and there are also liberal doses of satire at the expense of the U.S. Iraqi invasion. However in the end its targets are a little fuzzy with the film coming out best viewed as just an off-beat comedy with a streak of quirky expose running through it. It's performed excellently and often hilarious.

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