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Yeah.... I don't understand how this has the reputation it got.
While far from perfect, The Men Who Stare At Goats is a decent watch and definitely produces a lot of elements that actually make a pretty funny story.
The cast was brilliant and the bit where George killed that goat with his mind had me cracking! It just tells so much about a comedy that doesn't need to be necessarily smart to be as funny as it is.
I wish this Coen Brother style comedy came back in modern time (as this was the last comedy that did so) because we really need 90 min skits like this.
Overall as stupid as it can be, with it's 51% rotten tomatoes and a 6.2 out of 10 on IMDb, I would...HIGHLY RECOMMEND! It's just really good but I wish it was funny throughout as sometimes it doesn't really make a joke and tries to be serious.
Other than that, Watch it on now.tv now!!!!🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐 Grade: B+
Edit: I'm quite literally belly laughing about the one guy thing, Reddit never fails to crack a smile on my face. I could understand that you guys may not think it was funny about the "one guy" but it's all a lot of fun and I'm just joking around. Nothing to take seriously 🙂🐐. And if I did upset you I apologise.
People make it out to be bad? This was news to me.
On reddit, everything is really bad or really good, underrated or overrated. Nothing else exists.
And somehow underrated has become synonymous with just really good?
"I just watched The Matrix, super underrated imo"
Just going to take this opportunity to plug an underrated hidden gem of a sci-fi horror movie called Alien.
I've seen that one, cult classic, better than it's reputation. Have you ever seen Terminator? I know it gets a bad rep, but I think it's a hidden gem.
I feel like "underrated" on social media is used to mean "I haven't seen many memes of this thing in the last few weeks"
I get a lot of crap for pointing this out. If you say something is overrated the response is "how can you not like it" which isn't what overrated means.
Underrated means "I like it"
At this point overrated and underrated mean nothing.
I literally just watched the Matrix last night, and god damn for 1999 that shit is a masterpiece in CGI and fight choreography.
I said the same thing in 1999 when I saw it at the theater as well, but still it’s so GOOD. The small amount of Keanu’s exaggerated movements during some of the fight scenes adds to the charm.
Love The Matrix. I’m watching Reloaded tonight!
If you want to watch an actually underrated movie and want to continue a Keanu saga you should check out A Scanner Darkly. Also has Robert Downey Jr./Woody Harrelson/Winona Ryder
The script is so tight. Nothing extraneous, no fat, doesn't overstay its welcome for a single second.
When you're young, underrated means, "I just found out about this."
Underrated comment.
Don't forget how things can be so bad they become good again, MST3K movies for example
I definitely wouldn’t have watched Coleman Francis movies without MST3K, and now there’s no going back.
"Have you heard of Moon?"
Your comment is staggeringly underrated.
6 on IMDB isn’t exactly glowing.
Small correction. On reddit everything is really bad, really good, underrated and overrated.
Usually Reddit doesn’t come close to representing the average person in the real world. It’s why I laugh at all these advice subs or anything similar
I had heard this movie was bad wayvbefore I was ever on reddit. I didn't hate it but didn't like it much but yeah this has nothing to do with redditors haha
Cmon man, a 51% and 6.2/10 is pretty low.
The irony of criticizing hyperbole by using hyperbole is funny, just wanted to point that out lol
Underrated comment
Don't forget hamfisted, the ultimate critique for any movie telling a story straight instead of trying to be something from Nolan.
Over-rated comment.
Totally underrated comment unless it isn’t.
Stop trying to gaslight us
More like redditor sees one negative post with 30 upvotes and thinks that’s the global consensus.
Yeah, I thought it was just a good movie
TIL
This is a karma harvest technique. Make a thread about a position that doesn't exist but then take the correct side of it.
The popular opinion framed as an unpopular opinion.
The old karma whoring
It absolutely exists https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/men_who_stare_at_goats
"Though The Men Who Stare at Goats is a mostly entertaining, farcical glimpse of men at war, some may find its satire and dark humor less than edgy."
I prefer my satire and dark humor to be super edgy as fuck. Hard pass on this gay movie.
Reddit cannot have a real film discussion. It’s always very cringy here.
I think your comment is very underrated...
I liked it. Was I wrong...?
yeah it’s fine, not bad not great just ok
Same. 6.2 on IMDB is a very good rating and seems appropriate for the movie.
6.2 on IMDB is not a great rating..
Appropriate for this movie though, yes.
I remember when it came out reviews were not kind. I watched it then as well and found it on the boring side and just not very funny, which was very disappointing considering the cast
It has a 39% audience score on RT. 51% if you care what critics think.
If anything I find this movie was "overrated" Everyone seemed to have only good things to say about it. Which I think is fair but I didn't really enjoyed it. But didn't hate it. Just not my cup of tea.
No shit. It was great.
Yeah me too! Who doesn't like this great movie?
Jon Ronson's book is pretty damn good. Well worth the read and a lot more cohesive than the film.
This is honestly one of the only films I’ll actually be a wank about and say the book is so much better than the film. The film is meh but the book is so good
He did another book investigating what a psychopath is and it was really good too. Just an interesting exploration of stuff but with his anxiety of worrying he’s a psychopath even though he clearly isn’t
His book "Them" is one of my all-time favorites. He talks to a bunch of extremists (jihadists, conspiracy theorists, KKK members) and really gets inside their heads and shows you how they think, and are more human than we tend to assume. Plus it's funny as hell.
Sounds good, I’m gonna go buy it
The movie is such a puzzling choice for an adaptation.
I’ve never watched the movie bc I just didn’t see how the hell they made a decent adaptation.
They did not. They turned it into a sort of fictionalized comedy.
Which sucks, because the book is really weird, really dark, incredibly disconcerting... but also hilarious in parts, if only for how absurd the actual history is.
Instead, the movie fictionalizes so much, the audience quickly forgets how well-documented the actual, bizarre-as-fuck story really is.
Pretty much everything Jon Ronson does is worth a read, listen or watch.
The Butterfly Effect and Things Fell Apart are fascinating.
Yeah he's decent. Also the movie Frank, which is a highly fictionalised version of a book he wrote based on real-life man-in-a-papier-mache-head Frank Sidebottom. Jon was the keyboardist in his band for a time.
Excellent read!
And there is also a doc based on the book, confusingly also titled The Men Who Stare At Goats. Just watch that if you can't be bothered with the book.
Cause you probably weren’t paying attention when it came out. All the trailers made it look like a hilarious comedy romp with a bunch of weirdos who believed in psychic powers.
The actual movie is a dramedy with some really funny scenes that were mostly shown in the trailers. A completely different movie than what they were trying to sell in all the marketing.
That’s why everyone was down on it.
I thought its biggest problem was after Burn After Reading the trailers made it seem like another Cohen Brothers-esc George Clooney film, and it didn’t live up to that.
I feel like Burn After Reading wouldn’t have been the same at all without Brad Pitts character. I feel like he was the glue…not to say Clooney didn’t kill it either… no pun intended lmao my god that closet scene gets me every time!
This. I remember overhearing a conversation from somebody that just saw the movie and completely missed the point. They expected a pure comedy movie from how the movie was marketed.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had the same problem and received poor reviews when it was in theatres. The commercials only showed the slap-stick comedy parts.
It's one of those movies where I remember I didn't like it, but don't really know why I didn't like it. I remember some moments, but overall it's forgettable.
Yeah, it's just kinda boring. A lot of parts that should work, but just fall flat.
Yeah. I literally laughed zero times during it and thought "well this is definitely NOT a comedy" but some of the things are so campy you can't even take it seriously.
I really enjoyed that movie. The only thing that annoyed me was how many times they would make a Star Wars joke and look over at Ewan McGregor like "good joke, right Obi Wan?"
Yeah, that joke was kinda "meh". 🐐
It's better than the men who stare at goatse, that would be a terrible movie.
It is based on far too many true stories, though.
Take care, for if you gaze too long into goatse, goatse gazes back into you.
A psychological horror for the times
Agreed.
Fantastically funny film with a great cast of goofballs. And somehow has real heart to it as well.
Was very surprised to hear that it has a less-than-great reputation online.
I have only heard people speak overwhelmingly positively about the movie.
It got the reputation it has because it's a bad adaptation of the excellent and highly popular book.
The reverse Forrest Gump.
I love that movie and this is the frst time ı heard that it hasa bad reputation. As I remember, at the time of its original release it had really favourable reviews from critics all over.
I remember specifically wanting to go see that movie in theatres but the reviews were either meh or bad and so I decided against it.
Unless something went over my head the first time I saw it, I do recall it being pretty meh (heh 🐐). The movie seemed like it would be an all out comedy, and it was just occasionally funny. It seemed like it didn’t commit enough to any genre or tone. So it kinda fell flat for me. If it was a much more comedic movie, it could have worked, because I did want to like the movie.
I actually thought it was pretty funny throughout, but a lot of the jokes are only funny because of how close to reality the story was. Obviously they exaggerated a bunch, but a lot of the story is based on crazy CIA programs that actually existed about remote viewing and psychic abilities.
This movie was about as properly rated as it gets. It wasn't bad, nor was it terribly memorable, either. It was...serviceable, I suppose.
I bought it back when it came out because I liked the cast and general vibe it gave off.
I was never able to finish it. Always fell asleep.
Wanted to like it, love the cast and it's my type of film, but nope. It was negatively reviewed at the time and I can't disagree.
I loved it, and I had no idea it had a bad reputation lol just about every time I mention it to people they’ve never heard of it.
It doesn’t have a bad reputation, OP is high
I didn’t know it had a bad reputation till this very post. I thought it was funny.
Honestly I barely remember it other than that I saw it in theaters when it was released and that it was really disappointing. The cast was stacked and I’d been really hype about for a while leading up to the release since it looked very coen bros esque
I saw it with a group and we were all whelmed
I absolutely love this film
I don't know, it's pretty bad actually.
I remember enjoying it when I saw it in the cinema at the time. Not a great film by any means but fairly entertaining.
Goats eh?
Wanted to like it - but didn’t find the execution as funny as the concept.
I rarely read movie opinions on Reddit but have never heard anyone say they didn't like this movie