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





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

This is a very good trailer. It does a wonderful job of selling the film and the performances. George Clooney does have a goofy comedic side which doesn't get utilized enough. As this trailer displays, he has a particularly good knack for double-takes.






Screenwriters: Jon Ronson (How to Lose Friends & Alienate People)
Director: Grant Heslov
Actors: George Clooney (Burn After Reading), Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting), Jeff Bridges (The Fisher King), Kevin Spacey (21), Stephen Lang (Avatar), Robert Patrick (Terminator II: Judgment Day), Stephen Root (Office Space) and Waleed Zuaiter

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

This is the second movie I know of about a African-America homeless paranoid schizophrenic who once attended Julliard and is a masterful musician.

This trailer gives no real reason to see the movie. With all of the sweeping music and pushy emotionalism the story itself seems rather hollow. A rich white guy stops his self important life long enough to give aid to a troubled black man. The film meets all of the usual racial elements Hollywood is comfortable with (geez I wonder if white guy will bring troubled black man to meet the rest of this rich white guy friends and, gosh I wonder how things will turn out?).

There wasn't a screenplay for this movie, it was a recipe.





Screenwriter: Susannah Grant (Catch & Release)
Director: Joe Wright (Atonement)
Actors: Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Catherine Keener (Living in Oblivion), Jamie Foxx (Ray) and Stephen Root (Office Space)

Labels: Catherine Keener, film, Jamie Foxx, movie trailer, Robert Downey Jr, Stephen Root