Will Grant Heslov’s The Men Who Stare at Goats be the greatest George Clooney movie of all time? If you’re a fan of the actor/director’s work in Three Kings, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Burn After Reading and Syriana, then it’s possible you’ll see this as the military/CIA satire he’s been working towards his whole career. The fact that it seems like it should or could have been directed by the Coen Bros. — costars Jeff Bridges, Stephen Root and J.K. Simmons have all worked with the filmmaking duo in addition to Clooney — provides further evidence that this might well be the epitome of Clooney’s career.
Based on the non-fiction book by Jon Ronson, Goats is about a reporter (Ewan McGregor) working on a story about a U.S. Army unit employing psychic soldiers. Clooney is one of these “Jedi warriors,” as you can see in the trailer when he bursts clouds and knocks over goats with his mind. One particular bit of slapstick stolen from the underseen Special has me a little worried about the humor here. But how can I not want to see a movie that basically seems to insert “The Dude” into a modern day cross between DePalma’s The Fury and Spies Like Us?
Check out other film blog reactions to the trailer after the jump:
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I don’t smoke weed, but if I did, I’d spend today getting high and watching a marathon of movies that are (supposedly) better when you’re stoned. Why? Because it’s 4/20, the high holy day for marijuana fans. You’ve probably seen a billion of these lists, which recommend the same bunch of psychedelic classics beloved by stoners everywhere. So, instead of including such obvious choices as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and other familiar titles, I’ve picked some alternatives to the usual 4/20 favorites, because after awhile, the same old visuals just don’t do it for me — I mean, those sick, degenerate reefer addicts — anymore.
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It’s been a long time since I watched a movie aired on commercial television. As a kid, however, I watched enough TV edits of films to have seen both Fast TImes at Ridgemont High and Sixteen Candles about a thousand times each before I knew that either film, in its original cut, features nudity. As far as language goes, though, any kid could figure out what curse words were really being mouthed by the actors instead of overdubbed words like “stuff,” “funsters” and “mothercrusher.”
But a young person watching Weird Science may have been seriously confused, because much of the censored dialogue wasn’t even inappropriate for television. So, when words like “nipples,” “fart” and “bang” are replaced with “pimples,” “puke” and “hit,” we kids of the ’80s just simply had to abandon TV edits forever. Therefore, I’ve never had the pleasure of hearing a coarse phrase from The Big Lebowski turned into the bizarre line “This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!”
According to a list of “10 Worst Movie Edits For TV” at AskMen.com, the #1 offender is Die Hard’s infamous “Yippee-ki-yay, Mr. Falcon.” But I have to go with their #10, Weird Science, for the top spot, because it ruined me for future movie edits, and now I’m aware that some of them are actually quite enjoyable in a ridiculous sort of way. Check out a montage of Weird Science overdubs after the jump.
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Everybody remembers the bigger name Coen Bros. regulars, such as John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Frances McDormand, Billy Bob Thornton and now George Clooney. And of course, there are the one-shot stars, like Nicolas Cage, Gabriel Byrne, Jeff Bridges, William H. Macy, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julianne Moore, Paul Newman, Albert Finney, Woody Harrelson, Tim Robbins and now Brad Pitt and John Malkovich. But who ever talks about Michael Lerner? He received an Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Barton Fink, yet he never seems to get the same kind of respect that Javier Bardem gets, and it’s not just because Bardem won the award for No Country for Old Men.
With their new film, Burn After Reading, the Coens have again recast some lesser known character actors that I hope get the recognition they deserve. Both Richard Jenkins and J.K. Simmons have previously appeared in the Coens’ films, but each has seriously risen in notability since their last collaboration with the filmmakers. Hopefully, they’ll continue to be cast by the brothers.
Obviously, all my favorite Coen Bros. actors can’t be in every Coen Bros. movie (especially since some of them are dead). And interestingly enough, the brothers’ next film, A Serious Man, is being cast with (so far) only actors they’ve never employed. So, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the less-recognized actors and actresses who have done tremendous work for Joel and Ethan, not so much in the hopes that they’ll be re-employed (some can’t be) but in the general interest of giving them some much-needed praise.
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Some movies are violent, some are disturbing, and others are just plain wrong. Paul W. S. Anderson’s Death Race is a fun ride with some gnarly crashes, but it can’t hold a candle to its demented predecessor, Roger Corman’s Death Race 2000 (1975).
Cinema’s favorite weirdo, Cripsin Glover, is taking his film across the country, personally hosting a series of screenings. The film, What Is It?, is dense and provocative filmmaking, but not necessarily in a good way. Glover describes his opus as a critique of corporate-controlled studios’ fear of taboo. It’s either that, or just a whole lot of snails being killed, mixed with porn, mixed with possibly exploitative uses of actors with downs-syndrome.
For a more upbeat take on the absurd, we take a look and some the fun being had in Spout’s Movie Games group. Specifically, what happens when scenes from our favorite movies are digitally translated to another language, then back into English. The result: surreal hilarity. Our dramatic reading proves that The Big Lebowski could have been a whole lot weirder.
(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)
0:00 - Intro
3:05 - Death Race, then and now
16:30 - Crispin Glover’s What Is It?
31:29 - Fun with online translators, Big Lebowski style
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Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, has turned into a powerful tool in the hands of not only consumers but marketers of all stripes as well. Comcast, Paramount Pictures and a handful of others have all latched on to it as a way to communicate with customers, acting not only as a distribution platform but a conversation hub and customer service hub as well. Some of the biggest names in the social media marketing world are spending serious time brainstorming how to use Twitter for marketing, debating its usefulness and otherwise hashing out a series of best practices for utilizing the service.
Media outlets have also turned to Twitter for many of the same reasons. TV Guide, Fox News and even Spout have a presence there to, again, promote their content and, in some cases, even engage in a back-and-forth with readers.
But did you know that Darth Vader is twittering? How about Cobra Commander?
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While I was out, AJ Schnack wrote a couple of 
