It is fair to assume that most people walking into this movie would expect a quirky, humorous satire of the ineffectual, bureaucratic heart of the United States military. The trailer, available below, certainly forwards this message.

The military decides to begin a program designed to create super soldiers through the use of telepathy, telekinesis and other odd, unproven mental skills. George Clooney fronts the film which seems to have been made with a Coen Brothers vibe.

That vibe isn't there. Neither is the story.

Yes, some aspects of the story are true. The government did have a time when it delved into alternative concepts like remote viewing. Unfortunately, being true doesn't always translate into being watchable.

In all of its attempts at being zany and too cool for the room, this film commits one of the unforgivable sins: it is dull. It is open-mouthed, broadly announced yawn kind of dull. Start daydreaming about the household tasks that remain undone kind of dull. Kevin Spacey ten years past when he gave up trying kind of dull.

Have you ever seen a Coen Brothers movie like Burn After Reading or The Hudsucker Proxy where they just can't make it work? Their cobbled together plot is too creaky and loose to function properly? This leaves them with a bunch of scenes that feel under-worked? This whole movie is one of those scenes. Quirky jokes that aren't amusing. Not good.

Skip this one. It wasn't done cooking before they served it up.




Related Reviews:
George Clooney movies
Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
Ocean's 11 (2001)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Los Angeles Times
Roger Ebert





Click here to buy your copy of
You Are What You See and learn
to change the world from your couch

Labels: Ewan McGregor, film, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, movie review, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang, Stephen Root