STARRING: George Clooney (Ocean’s Trilogy, Syriana); Ewan McGregor (Angels & Demons, Big Fish); Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, Surf's Up)DIRECTOR: Grant Heslov (newcomer)
WRITER: Peter Straughan (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
PLOT: A reporter tags along with a former member of a military unit that uses paranormal powers in their missions.
FIVE OBSERVATIONS
4George Clooney is fun to watch. He’s the selling feature of this film, so that’s a good thing. He plays goofy well, much better here than in Burn After Reading. What was weird is that he turns his goofy charm off in the last thirty minutes of the movie. Too bad.
4The film starts with a caption saying the following story is more true than you think. I can imagine the unit but I can’t imagine them going out into the field. I guess this disbelief puts us in the same boat with McGregor’s reporter role.
4The word ‘Jedi’ is thrown around a lot. It kind of took me out of the scenes seeing as McGregor played Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi Knight, in the Star Wars prequels. Was this casting on purpose?
4 Some of the slapstick works, some does not. You can decide which is which.
4 I’d like to see more missions of this bizarre battalion rather than just the training montages.
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