Friday, November 13, 2009

Oh crap, I think I just ran him over.



The Men Who Stare at Goats is the (mostly) real-life story of the New Earth Army, the U.S. military's brief flirtation with new age techniques in order to create enhanced supersoldiers, psychic spies, and Jedi warriors.

The copious Star Wars references was worth the price of admission, but you could probably get away with just renting the DVD. Given the premise and cast, the film turned out somewhat underwhelming. It seems vaguely without direction and ends up with a sort of meandering pace. It also falls off towards the end, leaving me in surprise when it started leading up to the credits.

That said, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, George Clooney and Kevin Spacey more than make up for most of the flaws, adding hilarity to nearly every line and scene. Even the smallest things, like eating a Twizzler or holding a goat, has added levels of hilarity. The film derives most of the humor from its absurd-yet-true premise and a dark satire of the military, notably in a hilarious shoot-out outside an Iraqi gas station.

Basically, if you're a fan of any of those actors and/or Star Wars, you won't regret the time and money spent. Everyone else, wait for the DVD.

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Am I the only one who spends the semester composing his Instructor Evaluations in his head? Because I have choice words for basically all my professors so far. And of course, everyone knows that negative reviews are way more interesting and fun to write than glowing reviews. I don't have much of an idea of how well I'm doing in my classes, because none of them are terribly prompt graders and none of them really use the online gradebook, so I'm in the dark until they get on the ball.

I would rather not go to work tomorrow. It's Saturday, which means customers, who happen to be a serious impediment to my work. It doesn't help that the back room barely has enough room to walk around in. There are too many books to shelve and the "Truck to Floor in 24" maxim is a joke. The almighty Zone Vice President will visit on Tuesday, expecting everything to be spic and span, and heads will roll if they are not to his specifications. No matter what the reports say, if I happen to be fired during his visit, know that it was because I said something to an authority figure that was less than respectful.

Joe the Biden is going to be on The Daily Show next week! I hope Jon asks him how often he sees Obama's "Man, shut the fuck up" face.

Review of the HG Gadessa to come over the weekend I think.

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