The Men Who Stare at Goats

I don’t demand that all of my political satire be deep and thought-provoking, but I would like it if it contained some teeth. The Men Who Stare at Goats desperately needed some bite. It also needed to choose a tone and stick with it. It bounces along between fluffy comedy, flirts with darker and edgier tones and never quite grasps for what is hopes to achieve. But George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey are obviously having a grand old time in their contradictory roles: hippies in the military who want to be Jedi warriors, basically. Scattershot might work in actual wartime, but it hinders a film. It’s not awful, but it could have been much better.