So Familiar, So Strange, So Entertaining

Take a little “Dr. Strangelove,â€� add a dash of “M*A*S*H,â€� a dollop of “Stripes.â€� Stir in a bit of “Star Warsâ€� to taste and you’ve got  Grant Heslov’s war comedy “The Men Who Stare At Goats.â€�

   Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a reporter at a small paper in Ann Arbor, MI, who is dismayed to discover his wife is leaving him for the editor. (Cue first “Strangeloveâ€� gag, the editor’s evil-looking artificial arm.)

   Trying to prove himself, the muddled Bob finds himself cooling his heels, Kuwaiting for permission to go into Iraq.

   And he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) in the bar, and away they go.

   For Cassady is no ordinary defense contractor, but an ex-member of a super-secret Army outfit called The New Earth Army, formed in the late 1970s because the Russians thought the Americans were researching psychic warfare, which they weren’t, but the Russians thought they were, so they started their own program, so the Americans had to close the psychic operations gap, and . . .   

   (That would be your second Strangelove reference.)

   The New Earth Army is headed by Lt. Col Bill Django, played with stoned amiability by Jeff Bridges. The unit has early potential, but is derailed by the ambitious and devious Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), who shows up at the finale.

   So the story is a series of flashbacks between the weirdo hippie army stuff and the misadventures of the hapless Bob and the self-described Jedi Warrior Cassady as they flounder around Iraq.

   The bang-bang between past and present works and the yuks keep coming steadily — consider the concept of a de-bleated goat — until the end of the film, when Bob and Lyn find themselves at a private contractor’s psychic ops camp, run by the malevolent Hooper.

   And in an episode that seems designed only as a way to end the movie, they dose the camp with LSD. Strained hilarity ensues.

   “Goatsâ€� is based on the book of the same name by Jon Ronson, who introduced America to the work of David Icke, the king of the conspiracy theorists, and it has the same heady mix of absurdity and plausibility.

   The film is rich with satire. The dialogue is crisp, the sequences tight (until the end).

And “Goats� is blessedly devoid of overt politics, a real relief these days.

   Clever, well-paced, and a can’t- miss cast.

   Check it out.

“The Men Who Stare at Goats� is rated R for language, drug content and nudity.

It is playing at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY, and the Cineroms in Torrington and Winsted in Connecticut.