Release Date – 11/6/09
Bob Wilton is a journalist whose life is on a downward spiral. He’s not getting much work, his wife left him for his editor, and his big break doing a story in Iraq isn’t working out. Then he meets Lyn Cassady, a self proclaimed Jedi-warrior, a psychic spy for the military. Cassady takes Bob on a journey throughout Iraq giving him the untold secret story of a lifetime. Bob learns the ins and outs of the special military unit that used million of dollars to train these psychic spies. Cassady has been reactivated and now Bob is along with him on his current mission. This movie was very short on laughs and somewhat boring. I expected much more and was let down. Most of the funny parts are shown in the trailers.
Ewan McGregor takes on the role of Bob Wilton. He’s really a pathetic guy who is letting his bad luck really get him down. George Clooney plays Lyn Cassady who turns Bob’s life around for the better… and sometimes worse. The two team up and drive through the desert only to crash their car, get kidnapped, break free, get lost, and fight with each other along the way. But on their journey, Cassady explains everything about the psychic spy unit which is accompanied by flashbacks to his early days in the military training under Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). The flashbacks were some of the funnier and more interesting scenes. Django is a hippie who started this peace and love movement in the army which in turn created the Jedi warriors. We see just how he did that through the flashbacks. Bridges provided some of the best scenes as he once again pulled off a great stoner character. Clooney was not nearly as funny as I had hoped and that is what hurt the movie the most in my opinion. Rounding out the cast was Kevin Spacey as the fake psychic who has a hand in destroying this secret department of the government. He was underused and didn’t get the same screen time as the other major stars.
Its funny that Ewan McGregor was in a movie where he has such lines as “You think I could be a Jedi warrior?” knowing that he played one of the most famous Jedis, Obi Wan Kenobi in the newer Star Wars trilogy. I guess if you got the inside joke there then it made for some funny scenes. But the actual writing just wasn’t good enough to hold my interest. It drags on and on without really having a final destination. Like I said already, Spacey wasn’t used nearly enough and Bridges stole most of the scenes, but the majority of the movie was Clooney and McGregor just traveling around explaining how the psychics came to be. The flashback scenes were better than the present time story going on which means a prequel would probably be more interesting. To wrap things up, I wouldn’t recommend this flick to most people. It seemed like it might have a Coen Brothers dark comedy feel to it from the trailers but it was not even close. Funny scenes were spaced out too far to keep my spirits up and I found myself checking my watch often. The flashback scenes are the only thing saving this from being WHACKED!
IMDB – 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 56%
Movie Wiseguys – 6/10