The Men Who Stare at Goats

The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

  • 52% of critics liked it
    (201 reviews)

  • 43% of users liked it
    (230,452 ratings)

Loosely adapted from a nonfiction book by Jon Ronson, Grant Heslov's directorial debut The Men Who Stare at Goats begins as heartbroken reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) heads off to imbed himself with troops as the Iraq War starts, but Wilton can't get himself into the country until he chances… More

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R, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By
Grant Heslov
Written By
Jon Ronson, Peter Straughan
Genres
Drama, Comedy
In Theaters
Nov 6, 2009 Wide
On DVD
Mar 23, 2010
Overture Films

Critic Reviews

  • Rafer Guzman, Newsday

    All in all, Goats would have been groaningly familiar, even back in the 1960s.

  • Michael Phillips, At the Movies

    It's a disappointment.

  • A.O. Scott, At the Movies

    Everyone involved seems to have had a pretty good time, but this one looks like it was more fun to make than it is to watch.

  • Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

    The narrative flips and flops ruin the comedic flow.

  • Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

    If this is what a Hollywood liberal conscience looks like, it's a glib and useless thing.

Read all 21 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • John M


    A very strange movie but with a cast of actors that I love. So I fought through it and well it wouldnt surprise me if OUR MILITARY DID do stupid things like this.

  • Mark W


    Grant Heslov is mainly known for his producing and writing collaborations on some of George Clooney film's. However, on this occasion he takes the directorial reigns leaving me wondering what might have come of this film had someone with more experience been behind the camera.… More

  • Directors C


    The humour and plot aren't really on the same page throughout and there's no way of telling whether an act is supposed to be serious or comical. But it'll entertain most people and it's faithful to it's source material.

  • moon r


    Sort of a modern take on Catch 22, wherein military aesthetics are lampooned as contradictory to life aesthetics, that falls flat from a lack of direction. You'll want to be very bored to suffer through this.

  • Jens S


    This military satire claims that more aspects of it are true than you'd expect and maybe that's even the case, the story is still pretty crazy. While a reporter (McGregor) teams up with an undercover psychic soldier (Clooney) in Iraq, we learn about the history of the so… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

Cast

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