Smell the Movies
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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| Year: | 2009 |
| Country of origin: | USA / UK |
| Director: | Grant Heslov |
| Genre: | Offbeat reality-comedy |
| Starring: | George Clooney, Ewan McGregor , Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Robert Patrick |
| Rating: | 5/5 |
| IMDB link: | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234548/ |
| Tagline: | No goats. No glory. |
| Favourite line: | "Dear Mother Earth... I will drink your blue waters... and eat your green skin." |
An offbeat, provocative and, at times damned funny comedy starring Ewan McGregor, George Clooney and Jeff Bridges, the title alone should indicate that you are in for something just that little bit different.
McGregor plays Bob(!) a reporter in Kuwait City investigating a rather humdrum affair, when he stumbles upon Clooney’s Lyn Skip Cassady, a name he heard a while back in connection with rumoured military experiments involving the power of the mind. After some convincing Cassady allows Bob to accompany him as he sets out to prove that Operation Jedi was in fact real and that, far from being a relic of Cold War history, the same paranormal lines of research are very much active.
Phase shifting, telekinesis, mind control, the Dim Mak and more besides are all par for the course when training a Super Soldier.
Witty, engaging and with a stellar cast, this manages that rarest of feats: being a comedy that actually makes you laugh instead of wince with embarrassment with each passing fart joke.
Though quirky, it remains constantly on the right side of the line that, if crossed, leads to the dangerous and wit-free arenas of the zany and the wacky.
McGregor and Clooney have a genuine on screen chemistry, and Bridges is magnificent in the supporting role as the hippy-tastic Drill Sergeant.
Thought provoking, relatively provocative in a ‘poke a stick at the American military’ sort of way, this is quite unlike any other movie I have seen, the nearest comparison I can draw being one of Dean Koontz's more whimsical novels.
If only more comedies were this good.
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