This film is a disappointment.

So many things are in its favor – stellar cast, fascinating source material, apparently enough money and time to do something great. Most film crews would kill for any one of those things to hang their production on.

So when you have all that, and your movie is still a big zero, it’s hard to know who to blame.

Turning Jon Ronson’s book into a semi-inspirational screenplay is probably the first mistake. Turning the morbidly fascinating story of the Pentagon’s hesitant embrace of the occult into a silly conflict about personalities is probably another. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Despite valiant efforts by Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey the movie goes nowhere, and says only a few very trite things.

Don’t bother, at least until it’s on cable. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the best this movie has to offer you.

As a side note, I’d like to ask a favor of the Hollywood powers that be. Please stop asking Ewan McGregor to do an American accent. He is terrible at it. He’s an engaging actor, and I see why you want to cast him in so many things, but for the love of Pete let him talk the way he talks. Especially in this one, where the author of the actual book is a Brit – there was no reason at all for him to do that atrocious twangy trainwreck of an accent. No more – I mean it.