Based on a book in the same way any given Hollywood reality movie was based on a napkin someone once doodled on, the opening card claims more is true in this movie that one would think. Conversely, according to the author of the actual book, more is invented in this movie than that card would hope you don't think.
The movie is partly historical, partly documentary, partly entire fiction, in that we find out about Project Jedi, the people involved, and their amazing powers. Going out on a limb here, I'm going to say that any actual powers were coincidental rather than real. (Example: the goat scene in the movie... in real life, there was a bunch of goats stared at, and the one next (or further along) from the one stared at fainted... that's it.) Then again, it's all about the male bonding... although there isn't much of that either. More about the search for something to believe in, which is apparently a good thing ('cos nothing ever bad has arisen out of believe in an ideology).
A quirky movie, light hearted and fun, but... missing anything really substantive.
Big name roll call: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Robert Patrick... even spotted Glenn Morshower (in the military? how unusual!). The performances... matched the level of the film. No-one will be winning Oscars for this, but they weren't phoned in either.
The sort of movie to catch if you happen to be there and can't find anything better to see...
[END]
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
The Men Who Stare @goats
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2 comments:
The 3 part Doco, the book and movie are based on is quite interesting. Not having read the book itself (sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read) can't say how much is duplicated. But I did like seeing the real life people that were portrayed in the movie and where the idea for some of the scenes in the film actually came from.
Yeah, it's one of those "should get around to reading it" books, but I got plenty of those...
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