Herzog takes a trip into alien territory

They suck, he says, when they fail to
arrive, so he goes to work for the CIA instead.

There's much work to be done since something's going on in outer space that has to be investigated.

What it is we never know, but Herzog includes hitherto unseen footage of spacemen in their ships along with much technobabble about the intricacies of such an operation.

A humorous edge competes with the eccentric German director's usual air of exotic mysticism which suggests that there's a lot we don't know
and will probably never understand about the forces of nature.

There's a great soundtrack, including music from the Senegalese singer Mola Silla, a Sardinian choir, the Dutch jazz cellist Ernst Reijseger and excerpts from Handel's Xerxes.

An unlikely combination, but then Herzog never ceases to surprise and here, despite some dull patches, does so with an off-centre film of an almost dreamlike quality.

The Wild Blue Yonder