Sept. 21, 2022

Midweek Mention... The Men Who Stare At Goats

Midweek Mention... The Men Who Stare At Goats
George Clooney explains how to be a Jedi to Ewan McGregor in director Grant Heslov’s debut feature, satirical war movie THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. Reporter Bob Wilton (McGregor) investigates the New Earth Army, a branch of the US military tasked with advancing America's interests by exploiting the paranormal and the psychic. A stellar cast and a smart Coen-lite script gives us some funny moments but the tone wavers between screwball and scathing and sometimes misses both targets. Think Fear and Loathing In Iraq or The Big Lebowsk-IED, whilst it never quite lives up to the potential of its premise this is a solidly entertaining and original comedy which once again features Kevin Spacey as an insufferable ar*ehole, a part he was apparently born to play.

Transcript

The Men Who Stare At Goats

Sidey:

This movie was kicked into touch last week because of the queen stuff. What we'd done, but we're doing it this week and it's the men. Well, no

Dan: men who stare at goats

Sidey: was it kitten's charge? it was the other stuff

Reegs: we did, the hitchhiker Dan had really eloquently, I think, described a hitchhiker themed week in our group chat, which I then hastily tore us under

Dan: went bit piece meal.

Didn't it? We did a little bit of hitchhiker

Reegs: There was a hitchhiker in this movie though. So of sorts. Yeah.

Dan: Well, the, the theme is Hitchhiker's way onto three or four different pods now. So happy.

Sidey: but yeah, this is the men who stare at goats. So I immediately thought I had seen hadn't and then when I started watching it, the movie that I was thinking of was burn after reading.

Dan: Okay.

That's

Reegs: good. Yeah. Cohen. Yeah. Cohen brothers.

Sidey: So I hadn't seen it. So this was my first venture,

Dan: right? Yeah. And res had you seen this before?

Reegs: I hadn't, but I have read the book, the John Ronson book.

Sidey: Mark's brother.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: We've often. Talks about reading the book first and it becoming a little bit of a disappointment of film.

So before we get into that though how does it start? You always do a good opening opening scene for his rigs.

Reegs: Oh well it opens with Brigadier general Dean hop. Good. Steven Lang from the avatar movies. And he's like staring intently at a wall and Then he promptly presses, the Intercom tells his secretary he's gonna run through the wall into the next room.

And I, for one was absolutely hoping this was gonna happen. But it doesn't he legs it straight into the wall, says shit falls to the floor.

the tone of the movie straight away. I think.

this And just after that, which is quite nice, the title, the little card flips up and it just says more of this is true than you would believe.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. That

Reegs: part, which is a lovely little thing.

Dan: And, and so this is the, the story of.

how

the, the American army had recruited super spies. And to do that, they'd fed em, loads of drugs and different alternative ways of fighting. And this is the story. So that, that kind of theory had been around.

Didn't it? How they'd this? I, I had used psychedelics or something to.

Sidey: yeah.

Dan: Information or to see how people reacted under different situations, but this was using it as kind of part of an armed conflict. And it starts off with you and McGregor. Who's writing a story. He's looking for a story. Yeah. He's a reporter.

Reegs: right. Yeah.

Sidey: He's

like, yeah. Ann Arbor. Seriously. Small time. He's just doing yeah, nothing work and he's won something bigger, but he's also got this pretty. Drastic home life. Uh

Reegs: Well, he married his high school sweetheart, and there's already sort of, you know, indications that things are not going great.

He hears a guy called Gus on a local radio, like talk radio type thing, claiming that he was part of a secret government psychic initiative. And he's got a VI, you know, and he says, he's got a video of him killing a hamster with his mind and it's, you know,

Dan: And he's been told by his editor to go down there and interview him and, and gets this story.

And it's a small time newspaper. And as you say, he's, he's getting the story together and watching with his mom, this video of a hamster, just falling over

Sidey: Well, he doesn't buy it. Does he, first of all, his notes were like, this guy's insane. He's crazy. But I was just doodling. Then he watches the video and the hamster.

Kilo. And he's like, oh my God. And then it comes, comes back. And he's like, well, mum, mum said, I couldn't kill it. You, I wasn't allowed to kill the

Dan: hamster.

Reegs: And it's one of those great. I, I didn't write the guy's name down. I've got it.

Sidey: He's from Dodge ball.

Reegs: Yeah. It's one of those great character actors that they have. And anyway, Gus, this guy and he tells him after he says about my mom would, let me show you the video of the hamster actually dying.

He tells him about a man called Lynn Cassidy, the man with who was the strongest side warrior that the us army ever had and will come to meet Lynn Cassidy short.

Dan: Yeah. Well, a few months go by and in this time he's you and McGregor is kind of split up with his wife. Who's run off with his editor,

Reegs: He's only got one arm, the editor. Did you notice, sir?

Sidey: Yeah.

So the, he, he, who is it that has the heart attacks. I'm a big fat guy in the office has a heart attack and. Hits his desk, his head on the desk and leave an indentation on the, this note bad thing.

So you, McGregor's kind of doing it and thinking, oh God, you know, life's. Fragile and whatever. And he sort of glances around and he sees his wife carrying on with the editor and she's like stroking his prosthetic arm.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: and then, then they have a dingdong at home where she's obviously telling them I I'm, I'm moving in with this guy and they have a fight.

And then he is, got him in a headlock with his prosthetic. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. So he gets beaten up in the fight, loses his wife and and then heads to be a war correspondent.

Reegs: Yeah. Well, he, he get, he kind of gets, it's not just a story. It's about proving himself. Isn't it? I wondered whether his boss had lost an arm as a war reporter because that's what he goes out to do.

Doesn't he? And. But he can't get amongst the thick of the action. He's just marooned in a hotel, drinking cocktails and phoning his wife and pretending and ignoring her. And like, yeah.

Dan: And, and how as far as the book goes, can you remember, was there any, no. Right.

Reegs: The whole story of Bob and all that.

No, none of that is in, in there. It's very much kind of like a, an invest investive journalism type piece on this stuff, but reveals the same similar absurdity that we're gonna come across.

Dan: Yeah. So so he is in Iraq and he's or no, he is

Sidey: is, is QA he's Yeah

Dan: in Kuwait.

He's just on the border waiting to try and get in. And he sat at a table,

Sidey: he's looking at all the real correspondence and they they're exchanging war stories and like,

Dan: he's not

Sidey: I'm just blanking him. He's not involved cuz he's got no stories. And he

Reegs: he's doodling in his notebook. He's drawing that.

Sidey: like a Illuminati kind of thing. Yeah. It's like a pyramid with an eye,

Reegs: it?

Yeah. Okay. It's got a name, but I can't

Dan: and and on the other table sat down as George Clooney.

Reegs: Well he tries to chat to him. Doesn't he

Dan: he does,

Reegs: strike up a conversation. He's not interested at all. He shuts him down and then there's a power blackout. And he's told him a name.

I think he said his name was skip. And he sees that actually he's wearing a name tag, badge said, Lynn, and he suddenly has a little

Dan: Lynn Cassidy

Reegs: believe it. Could it be?

Dan: And then he goes to ask him, do you know Gus Lacy? At which point he just stands up. And what wanders out in the, back into the, into the kitchen

Reegs: and the lights are going again as well.

You're a bit like, Hmm, what is

Sidey: this?

Dan: Yeah. He confronts him with him. They end up having a couple of drinks.

And,

Sidey: well, he tried, he does this sort of comical, like karate

Reegs: Yeah

Sidey: him. He jumps out and like, wow. Yeah. And measures, talk him down. And

Reegs: and this is not Clooney. This is Clooney in sort. A little bit wild-eyed goofball mode.

This is not a particularly suave Clooney. No. He's good at this character. I think it's a little bit,

Sidey: it's not quite SCR ball, but yeah, he's

Dan: he's on the

Sidey: age's veering towards that.

Dan: He's gotta look in his eye. Yeah.

Reegs: And you have no idea that, you know, how much of what he's talking about, he believes, or

Dan: well, he goes what were the color of the chairs in the, in the restaurant? He goes,

Reegs: how many fire extinguishers were there

Dan: When, when you come in, how many lamps are in the room?

How many power outlets, you know,

one,

that's level one we were taught and he goes through all these different stages of him. Actually confirming Gus's story from the earlier

Reegs: Well he tells him more doesn't he tells him about the new earth army and he tells the story of, of bill Jango, who we will meet as

Dan: Jeff Bridges.

Yeah.

still

Reegs: we see him, isn't it? Yeah. It's a great cast. Yeah. Dropped in Vietnam by helicopter him and a whole platoon or squadron into this empty field.

And when they get the helicopters fuck off and all the guys there and suddenly they notice it's like pile of corpses. It's really quite, quite grim. And I can't remember exactly how it starts. They start firing

Sidey: well, just, they

Reegs: Bush. There's a single sniper that they see running. That's

Sidey: well, I don't think he's even a sniper cuz he's got.

He's not got a rifle. He's just got like a machine gun. He's just this one soldier. And they all,

Reegs: well, he observes that none of his troops fire prop, they're all new recruits and they aim above his head. They don't want to kill the guy. Yeah. They aim wide of him or, or above him. And he's observing this happen and then he's shot in the heart by the

Sidey: the dude.

Yeah,

dude

Reegs: Yeah. But, and then he has this kind of weird vision basically telling him that love will win wars. It's you're not gonna win wars with fighting. You're gonna win it with love.

Dan: Yeah. But he's, he's not shot in the heart. He's shot on the other side.

because he'd have been dead

Yeah, and he, but he's not dead. He get, he recovers in hospital and when he gets better, he writes to the head of the army and says that he wants to investigate alternative ways of combat. And they give him. License to do it in his old, his own platoon. He didn't quite go and say what he was gonna do, but he gave him enough information that they took it.

And he starts the, this new,

Reegs: the research, which mostly consists of taking drugs and sleeping with people.

Sidey: The first,

Dan: these

Sidey: the first shot is it's like a proper drill Sergeant. He's got them all lined up and he's screaming at them that we're gonna do. And he is like, nah, I'm just fucking around

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: And he, and you're watching him like, it's the dude, you know, trying to your serious.

And the next thing he's got them all dancing. Yeah. And Clooney's like, not quite into it.

Dan: Well, he is been through this, this

Sidey: any reason you can't dance is cuz someone told you not to. And he has a flashback to his dad saying Stop doing that.

Reegs: He's he's dancing in front of the TV. Isn't he and his dad. Yeah, exactly.

Sidey: It should be horrible.

Dan: You throw a beer can at him or something. And, and he hasn't done since, but then he's been ordered to by his superior and he lets it go and becomes actually the star student. He's, he's able to do the most amazing things and, and the way they bounce off each other and just congratulate.

And there's this whole series events, how Bo has to get his. Well, he does his apprenticeship, if you like, you know, so he started off in that, in those hot tubs and wasn't really into it. But at the end,

Reegs: he's in it with the load of dudes at

Dan: and he's holding court and everything, and he's the one that's the, the shaman that is, has come through the other side

Reegs: and it's Brigadier hop good that we saw at the beginning is kind of sponsoring this and bringing this through and it's happening because basically.

The Russians, he read that the Russians were doing psychic research and because the Russians then believed that the us were doing it, they'd started up their own psychic research division. So even though they weren't doing it, that the us then decided that they had to do it because they couldn't be second best of the risks.

Sidey: Yeah

Reegs: They couldn't let the commies get the edge. So they've, that's, you know, the explanation and that ties into the guy at the beginning, trying to run through the wall. Mm.

So, anyway, Bob is fascinated by the story and he convinces Lynn to take him into Iraq.

Doesn't he? because

that's Lynn's mission.

Dan: he, he, he isn't going to, but then he sees the dude, all that he's done and he's

Reegs: eye. That's it. I've got it here, the all seeing eye

Dan: and then gives him the, the, the book, the manual, if you like, doesn't he there's the earth warriors, new age, manual, or something,

Reegs: And they try and cook with a solar powered.

Like it's looked like one of those things they put on a

Dan: yeah. Cone

Reegs: Cone thing. Yeah. The solar powered oven thing that turns out to be just complete

Dan: Yeah.

Shit. It doesn't work.

Reegs: Anyway, they are in a car. They crash, they get abducted by gun men. Yeah. And then we learn a little bit more about the.

Army. And we also get at this stage to believe that Lynn might be a little bit, this is where you start to think. Oh, right. Okay. Maybe this is all bullshit in his mind. He might be completely crazy.

Dan: Lynn

Kind of saying, look, I'm actually on the mission. This is what I'm doing. I'm not here as a contractor, which is my cover story. And

Reegs: Well, and he is also talking about destiny because he, he talks about the all seeing eye doodle. Yeah. And he shows he's got a massive tattoo of it on his chest.

Dan: Well, yeah, he is all getting a bit too real. Wasn't it? For you and McGregor, he was really uncomfortable, but Lynn is, is.

Calm and says, well, look, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna have a big distraction. And a lot of his magic was just like to make a crazy noise and then still fuck somebody up.

Wasn't it? It was like, and then what you do is you slice through their neck or something or, you know, make a big noise first. And

yeah

Sidey: a lot of it. Because there's some, some other things like just jumping forward a little bit cuz of the stuff that he does like that he talks about how cuz when we get Kevin Spacey's character introduced, he hits him with the Dimac

and yeah,

he's like the death touch, you know?

And he goes and, and this other guy, he got the death touch and like, oh right, okay. What happened? He like, he died 18 years

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: he like, he just died as something completely unrelated,

Dan: It got him though. Got him in the end. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But he believes all this stuff, like to the, to the point and one point he was doing cloud bursting. I gave that a go actually afterwards and it

Reegs: Is that actually what? I never knew what that expression meant. That is where you tried to burst them with your mind.

Dan: them with your mind. I did it the other days. Did you? Yeah, you can do that.

Reegs: All right. Okay. There's a swap or something proposed and then a standoff with the terrorists and they manage to get away after ly does this crazy tackle on the guy inspired by some comedy story of some

Sidey: guy weights off is nuts.

Reegs: Yeah. And then they get away and they accidentally mow down one of the other hostages. Mamu and they, everyone keeps getting, yeah, they keep getting his name wrong the whole time. Eventually this is where they're sort of H hitchhiking almost. This is the bit that's tenuously ties in with the theme and they get picked up by Todd Nixon, Robert Patrick.

And all he's talking about is Americanizing, Iraq. Yeah. Selling them McDonald's and Starbucks and all this shit. You

Dan: year zero. He just sees the potential of, of a new town.

Reegs: And his goons get involved in a firefi at petrol station with another bunch of private military

Sidey: contractors.

Dan: 12 people dead.

Reegs: 12 people dead.

Yeah. It's the bar, the blood bath of Baghdad or something. And it's just these crazy guys, shoot American guys shooting each other friendly fire incidents Lynn, Bob, and Mau escaped to Maud's house. And there's a weird scene where Lynn apologizes over dinner for America basically,

Dan: and then gets that in return. And it was all part of his level, one training, I guess, that kind of thing, you know, that's how it comes across that.

He's, he's going through this and he's apologizing feeling this guy's pain. And then he ends up with his car and getting waved off and they're back to where they needed to be.

Reegs: Well they get to actually, they get to it.

It's a great scene when they sit for half an hour, cuz they get to sign. There's a road that goes either left or right. And there's two bits of Arabic there. Neither of 'em speak it and they dunno which way to go. And he's trying to Intuit his way.

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: And they actually take the right hand turn don't they?

And then the score starts to swell a bit jointly as the car drives off. And it's a shot that you've seen as a transition shot in many movies to another scene. So what you're not expecting is the car to hit an I E D and get flipped up in the air.

Dan: just after he is confirmed. We, we got trained to go here and you just make instant decisions. You just go left, left. Right. Right. And he goes, why I've been here 30 minutes then?

Reegs: and then he just

Dan: and then he goes right. And it blows up. Yeah.

Reegs: And we did also learn that Lynn has Crohn's disease, which is this really horrible yeah. Thing. And he takes steroids for it. And I think he's running out of him.

Dan: Yeah. It's all getting it, it's all getting to the point where you and McGregor is losing a bit of faith. Again, they, they need to do the night on the desert after he's being carried.

And when he wakes up in the morning a goat goes by and he follows the goat

Sidey: over well. He's, he's given him the story about how he's stared at a goat, how he he's killed a goat, you know? And he's like that goat didn't do nothing to me and sort learn a bit more about him.

And we've we've we have met Kevin Spacey, I think at this point as well, we

Reegs: briefly have seen him. Yeah.

Sidey: like a real asshole.

Dan: yeah

Reegs: With psychic powers, allegedly his, his prove is show demonstrated to be a lot more sort of bullshit. Does his, his abilities, you know, more conman type

Dan: Yeah He was bending spoons.

Reegs: Whereas there has been some suggestion with Lynn. He like walks through Ari full of computers at area 51 and crashes them all,

Dan: Yeah. And he also plucked out some general in a house in the middle and, and

Reegs: remote viewing,

Dan: viewing. And he, he was able to, to kind of cross through the sky and

Reegs: I

don't believe in a lot of this stuff.

But the real life guy that inspired this is can, did under scientific conditions demonstrate some abilities that were difficult to.

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: which is interesting, but we can get to that. I've got some of it for the end. I hope I've got all that there, but yeah. So hoop per that's

Spacey's character.

We see him, he, he wants to be number one and You know, Lynn Cassidy is constantly sort of up staging him in testing. He's better than him. And eventually he hears about the CIA using psychedelics to boost their performance or have some sort of minding effect. So he tries it. He gets a, a sort of green cadet to take a load of these drugs.

Dan: Yeah. And gives him a, a really terrible bad trip like flashing red lights and playing ship music and, and, you know, really spooking the guy out. And he turns out to be the son of a general or Colonel or field. Martialist someone quite high up.

Who's pretty pissed off about it. And so scrutiny,

Sidey: he goes out into the yard. Yeah. Shoots, shoots his weapon into just randomly. And Jeff Bridges confronts him and says, hand me the gun and he just blows his brains out.

Dan: So, yeah so then a little

Sidey: that's the end. That's also, that's the end of Jeff Bridges.

He's discharge, dishonorable

Reegs: There's a great bit he's bought before, like a military oversight committee and they say to him are you used funds to hire prostitutes and buy drugs?

And he's like, I only used them to buy drugs.

Sidey: No.

Dan: that

hookers was a fucking lie,

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: yeah.

Dan: yeah. And Kevin Spacey standing up in court, giving all the evidence against him.

Yeah. And really throwing him under the bus. Yeah. Yeah. And he was the, the new recruiter come in. And, and now has, has kind of.

Gone ahead. Isn't he is

Sidey: well, he's got his, he's got to where he wanted to be, but a fair means or foul, but yeah, like you say, there's this scene where they, the, the goat appears in the desert and leads them to this little Oasis.

This little pool where they have some water able to survive, and then we hear some helicopter noise and they're rescued, but taken to, I guess, effectively like a camp bastion sort of thing. Yeah. And it's space in charge.

Dan: And it's there that,

Reegs: well they find a shed full of goats spares, don't they? Yeah. And there's a guy being tortured by listening to Barney, the purple dinosaur songs like endlessly, well strobe lights, bla it.

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah So the research is still going on. They're torturing some poor souls, but there's they meet. Then because he's remote viewed as an he's remote viewed this where Bo's gonna be where Jeff Bridges is gonna be. That's why he's here. He said, look, you called me in your mind.

Reegs: Yeah. Well, he's kind of burnt out

Dan: but he's burnt out and he's working with Kevin Spacey.

He's under him. He's, he's kind of just eating his words as it were. And he's had to. To go clap in hand and ask for, for a job because Kevin

Reegs: well, Spacey's working a, a private contractor yeah. Size securities, which is like a psychological, it's more psychological and subliminal messaging. And it's actually a little bit truer to his original vision because it is about stopping wars, not Not fighting

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: Anyway, it was just an interesting little thing I noticed there,

Dan: but yeah, it is. It's quite upsetting, I think for, for Lynn to see both in,

Sidey: well, he's just become an alcoholic.

He's just, he's out the game really. But they do they're they need to get, get one over. And they're, they're sitting down in the mess hall, I suppose you could call it. And something's not quite right. And this

Dan: don't touch the eggs.

Sidey: Don eat the eggs. Don't don't touch the eggs. It's like what?

We spiked it with LSD. And then Jeff bridge, just drinks. The water goes, yeah, the water it's like, what do you mean? we've we've all been drinking the water. He's like, yeah, no,

Dan: and they all just kind of, he has a bit anyway. Even knowing that he is in there, he just starts drinking some of the water.

Reegs: And then you it's slow at first, you look round the camp a bit and people are laughing and then suddenly things kick it up a notch. You know, people are dancing and then suddenly there's a Humvee and a machine gunner being driven round at breakneck speed.

Dan: People are just laughing, Kevin space, just staring at

Sidey: He's got a BELE or something.

Yeah. Yeah. He's going crazy.

Dan: and, and

Reegs: they, but no, he's got a gun though. Hasn't he, he gets a gun.

Dan: does a little, well, after they release the prisoners and they're all just letting him out. He confronts him with a gun mm-hmm and he doesn't really know what's going on, everybody.

he hides behind a bunch of flowers. Does he? One of them, right. You know, they're all scared. All the prisoners are just let out for the first time. Obviously the only ones not. On

Reegs: full. Yeah, exactly. A camp full of people on LSD

Dan: with guns all around. But they, they just kind of let out and escape. And Lynn and Bojangles get the A helicopter.

Sidey: Yeah, they're getting the cop.

Yeah.

Dan: he wants to go with them, but he says, no, no. Now you've you've to stay. The story is you, the mission is you go and tell everybody what's happened to you. And then you off dripping on a helicopter

Reegs: like shamans do

Dan: and they never seen again. Yeah. Yeah. I never heard of.

Reegs: yeah. But when Bob gets back his story that he writes up, it just becomes a bit of a joke.

The only thing they latch onto is the part about Barney. So he just becomes known as the reporter who unearthed the Barney torture.

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah. But there is a bit, I would we've right at the end of the movie where he's sitting in his office and he's thinking all this shit that he's been talked to the whole time with Lynn and then in an echo of the scene at the beginning, he runs at the war, but he goes straight through it

Dan: This time it happens.

Reegs: Mm-hmm

Dan: So it really can do it. He proved it at the end. Yeah. Well, there you go.

Reegs: I would say there was quite a disappointing lack of goat staring.

Dan: there. Well, at one point he does stare at a goat and you see, and he, he kills that goat and that for that he has a lot of guilt and he,

Sidey: of the goat.

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: yeah.

 Yeah.

Dan: So were your thoughts.

yeah, it's

Reegs: sort of co definitely coan brothers type feel, but co brothers light.

George Clooney, mansplaining, what a Jedi is to you and McGregor for about

Sidey: how I felt that they only cast you and McGregor. So they could do that. Yeah. I don't like him when he does an American accent,

Dan: was a bit odd

in

Sidey: I'm like, oh, okay.

This is why he's in it. And then even like, like Jango name was in there cuz the star war. Well and you're like, oh God,

Reegs: And was

Sidey: Yeah. It was a

Reegs: yeah, because all the real life people that, the stories that this is on, that are based on. You know, there, there are, like it says at the beginning, there is some element.

That's what John Ronson's book exposed an element of truth to some of these crazy, crazy stories.

Dan: I really like the characters in this, you know, Jeff Bridges, he plays that part brilliantly. Doesn't he, you know, he's he's born to be someone like Bo Bojangles or was that his name? Bojangles? Bow

Sidey: in this? No,

Reegs: No it's bill.

Dan: Bill Jango.

Yeah. Bo Jago and he, he was,

Reegs: that why you were calling

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: though?

Sidey: because his old man's Bo bridges as well, isn't

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. There's too many bows, but it was one that I'd seen before and first time I watched it back, but I really like the idea. It's based a little bit on truth. Do enjoy those true story kind of things. This isn't a true story, but you were saying there were some facts that you ran.

Reegs: Yeah. I, I don't seem to have any of them here, but the, the main story of a guy who was injured in battle and then went off to found the new earth army is based on a real general, who did do that? The Lynn Cassidy character is, is based on a real guy who I think is documented as doing that remote viewing thing and finding

Sidey: Joe McGonigal.

Reegs: Yeah. That's the name? Yeah. And there's some crazy shit that I read at least on his Wikipedia. And then some sources that I followed afterwards that when you're a skeptic, I guess like I am, there's some stuff there. That's pretty hard to yeah. Explain that he was able to do.

Sidey: Yeah The Jeff Bridges character bill Jango is based on Lieutenant Colonel, James Shannon. Who wrote the first earth battalion field manual. So there is obviously like elements of truth. And like it said, at the, some of this you won't believe is that is actually, or is more of it more real than you think could be possible.

But obviously there's gonna be bits in it that are artistic license, but it's what

Dan: a core

of the army to be in though. That was

Sidey: mad to think that that sort of stuff, you know, was going on. I

Dan: and, and get, you know, and. They would be pat each other on the back that, that one scene where there's kind of, I know 50 boxes or something, and they there's the three of them in chairs and they have to Jeff Bridges goes, you know, a seven what's in that box and he goes a man in a chair and it's Abraham Lincoln in the, and he's like the other one's guest, a TinCan.

I think he guessed The letter yeah. Pencil or something. But actually he,

Reegs: but then he's like, oh, I thought he said kine. K. Yeah,

Sidey: He was an asshole.

Reegs: he was Dick. Kevin's basically being a Dick in this. He was, he was good.

Sidey: Very convincing as a dickhead. Yeah. He

Reegs: as a complete Berlin.

Dan: Yes. Yeah.

Sidey: It's mad to think that, you know, you'd have. A certain amount of regimens, battalions, whatever it's and be like, right. You, you, you, you are going off to Nam and you like, you're gonna go off and take LSD and dart around it. Like what?

Dan: And they were all on like juices at one point weren't they?

Sidey: solid food for the first month of training. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: a pretty good cast. It's you

Dan: surprisingly good cast.

I couldn't remember. There was actually so many people. That I recognized in it,

Reegs: it

it feels

a bit over stuffed. Like maybe it could have done with a couple of rewrites or something. I don't know. But it's pretty decent, pretty entertaining. And you know, the bizarre stuff that it's based on is, is really utterly

Dan: Yeah.

Oh, I'm glad you've, you've seen it for the first time. What was your thoughts side? You, you enjoy it?

Sidey: I did enjoy it. I I didn't necessarily like all the like endless Jedi talk, but I did enjoy the movie.

I love the cast. Jeff Bridges, just like, it's a bit of a lead show. I really enjoy him. I'm a big fan of Clooney as well. So I always enjoy him sort of, you know, he's one of those guys who is like unbelievably handsome, but doesn't like play up to it. We just sometimes with the Danny ocean stuff, but, and doesn't take himself too seriously.

He's happy to like laugh at himself. So I enjoy watching him and yes, it was good.

You know, not the best film I've ever seen, but it was

Reegs: it's like a solid six and a half light entertainment, you know?

Good. You'll love a few. Chuckles,

Dan: have you seen anything in it that you would take away though? Are you counting? Are you, are you paying attention to the color of the chairs and,

Sidey: no, I'm terrible. Terrible for all that.

Dan: dunno how many sockets and exits and all the rest of

Reegs: taken way too much LSD for that Dan

Dan: already

in.