The Men Who Stare At Goats by Grant Heslov

For the first half of The Men Who Stare At Goats I was overwhelmed with the sheer audacity of what I was seeing, that I didn't care that the story was moving at such a snails pace. But the second half of the film sinks and sinks quickly and gets too bogged down in trying to tie all of the strands of the story up, which is a real shame because the first half is a riot.

Grant Heslov who wrote Good Night and Good Luck with George Clooney has what it takes as a director. He directs proceedings with a fresh and unique eye, a lot of the angles used reminded me of Clooneys directing debut Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind but here they are showing up the absolute lack of war that is going on in Iraq. It's just a shame that more time wasn't put into the script but I guess when you get the likes of this cast together you either go with what you've got and hope they make the most of what's there or loose some glorious performances.

Everyone in it are at their very best and all look like they are having a ball. Stephen Lang plays it straight but is hilarious, is there anything finer then seeingg him decked out in his best tennis clothes reading a book too seriously. Hilarious. Jeff Bridges plays the dude but it's as if this film is the prequel to 'The Big Lebowski' an origin story of the dude. And that is A-okay with me. Kevin Spacey is a hoot and I much prefer George Clooney in this mode of acting that he does, all wild bug eyes and far too serious for himself than his style of acting that he invokes in films like 'Up In The Air' which I seem to be one of the few people that was bored by. And finally Ewen McGregor plays the straight man in the piece and does it superbly well.

ALl up if your up for a bit of a surreal take on the Iraq go along for the ride but just know that at some point the film does sag under it's own story.

Thank you for everyone involved.