Grant Heslov’s begins with a disclaimer that says, “More of this is true than you would believe,” and the incredibly unbelievable nature of the story might be the worst part of the movie.
Bob Wilton, a journalist who is played by Ewan McGregor, is an average character in just about every conceivable way. Wilton’s search for a big story leads him to Lyn Cassady, a psychic spy who used to work for a top secret military operation. This top secret military operation called the New Earth Army deals with psychic abilities and their applications.
Members of the New Earth Army were able to find the location of an enemy and even see into the future with their abilities. The director must be a fanatic because the psychic spies often refer to themselves as “Jedi warriors,” and this detracts from the movie every single time.
Most of the people in this military organization seem to have no abilities at all, and the movie would have been so much better if the characters really didn’t have any abilities. Unfortunately, certain characters in the movie do seem to have actual psychic abilities, and this takes away much of the believability of the story.
After Lyn and Bob first meet in Kuwait, they travel to Iraq on a mission to save Lyn’s old mentor. However, the villain of the movie, Larry Hooper, proves that these psychic abilities can be used in war when Lyn kills a goat by just staring at it.
The entire story of revolves around stopping Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) from using the psychic abilities that were discovered in the New Earth Army for evil. This is a pretty simple story of good versus evil and it’s about as interesting as any other story like it. In other words, the movie doesn’t seem to bring anything incredibly original or interesting to the table.
If the quality of this movie was based solely on the story itself, then this movie would be downright horrible. Luckily, the movie is not just a serious story of good versus evil. The movie is also a comedy, and the funnier parts of the movie sort of make up for the lack of a decent storyline. Unfortunately, the laughs are few and far between. Parts of the movie should actually be described as boring, and some moviegoers may find themselves checking the time to see when the movie will be over. The relatively small amount of funny moments in this movie only adds to the disappointment.
The main problem with Goats is that it looks extremely good on paper, and this causes expectations to be really high. The acting should by all means be superb with a great cast like Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey and George Clooney, and the characters were definitely well acted.
Jeff Bridges’ character, Bill Django, is an army officer and a hippie who starts the psychic spy program and convinces the government that psychic abilities are real. However, Bridges’ character is basically the same exact character as his character in .
Unfortunately, a few of the characters weren’t that interesting. For example, Kevin Spacey plays a villain who doesn’t seem like much of a villain at all because he never really does much. The problem is not the acting. Kevin Spacey does a great job with his character, and he manages to make the character more interesting than it would have been.
One of the glaring problems with the movie is that it claims to be a true story but throws in completely unbelievable things (like when Clooney kills a goat just by staring at it).
The problem is that moviegoers want to believe everything in a movie that claims to be a true story. just causes the viewer to alternate between belief and disbelief, which becomes pretty disorienting.
At the end of the movie, some viewers may find themselves scratching their heads, and others may be slightly annoyed with as a whole. is ultimately grounded in typical movie clichés and occasional funny moments, but the overall quality of the movie is seriously hampered by repeated artistic failures.