The Men Who Stare at Goats fails as a movie because it only has one attitude towards its subject, paranormal research, that being to mock. There's plenty to mock, of course, not least the business with the goats. The film trots smoothly enough through variations on the theme: Lyn can see where a hostage is being held but not see the rock on the road in front of him; his powers work best when aided by drink; the paranormal soldiers are called Jedi (two laughs because Ewan McGregor stars); and so on. Such jokes work well enough grouped in ones or twos, but stretched over 93 minutes, they wear thin.

It's a shame because the humour would be enhanced if accompanied by an interest in why people are gripped by this stuff - or at least you could offset the psychic element by tilts at other equally mad things that rational people do: a theatre of war (the film's set in Iraq) offers plenty of opportunity for that. But the movie can only mock.