Burn After Reading
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, John MalkovichBrand: CLOONEY,GEORGE
Performer: Tilda Swinton
Performer: Frances McDormand
Primary Contributor: Joel and Ethan Coen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-12-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Burn After Reading
Movie Review: Well Cast, Hilarious Characters and Superb Satire
Summary: 5 Stars
The Coen Brothers still have got it. They create characters that are at the same time very unique and yet, someone you feel you know from your daily life. Everyone in this film is someone you know, from the idiotic Brad Pitt character (full of aimless confidence) to the talkative, non-listening Fran Walsh character ("I need a can-do guy, and you're all defeated"). From the scheming doctor Tilda Swinton ([to child]"take your meds, open up!") to her hilariously resigned divorce lawyer ("this where I'm obliged to ask my clients to "give it an extra day").
The entire "blackmailing the CIA agent" plot in order to pay for Fran Walsh's character's plastic surgery was such a bungling and hilarious mess despite people getting hacked to death with hatchets and shot in the head that I was laughing all the way.
When she went to the Russian Embassy and gave them the ENTIRE CD ROM they found(not a diminished copy) and said, "This is just a taste." I literally spit out what I was drinking at the time. I mean, what did she hope to achieve by turning the personal memoirs of a CIA Analyst over to the Russians? Everyone's reactions about this from John Malkovich's character through to the CIA big wigs kept me in stitches.
I don't why people hated this film, I hope they weren't expecting a Michael Clayton or something like that. I saw many very intelligent actors and actresses supressing their intellects but not in a sad way. I haven't seen George Clooney's character this dumb since Brother, Where Art Thou.
As for George Clooney's character, he is still a bit of a mystery. I have no idea what he wanted to achieve with all of his affairs and "home projects." I don't know why he finally used his weapon "after 20 years of PP(People Protection) etc." His sudden transformation after thinking the CIA was after him was almost out of character if I only knew what his character was.
The over-dramatic soundtrack sounding at first like the Terminator theme of drum sticks on steel trash cans and the "incoming data" like blip of the scrolling credits can be disarming at first making you feel that you're stepping into a spy thriller (which, Fran and Brad's characters obviously thought they were) but it adds to the deep layer of satire that only the Coen Bros. are capable of.
If you like cookie cutter characters with predictable plots, then this flick is not for you. If you like satire at the deepest level with all of our daily human faults exposed in a "what if this guy I know at the gym is as dumb as he looks?" way, then you'll not just like this film, you'll love it!
Summary of Burn After Reading
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 23-DEC-2008
Media Type: DVD
After the dark brilliance of No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading may seem like a trifle, but few filmmakers elevate the trivial to art quite like Joel and Ethan Coen. Inspired by Stansfield Turner's Burn Before Reading, the comically convoluted plot clicks into gear when the CIA gives analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) the boot. Little does Cox know his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton, riffing on her Michael Clayton character), is seeing married federal marshal Harry (George Clooney, Swinton's Clayton co-star, playing off his Syriana role). To get back at the Agency, Cox works on his memoirs. Through a twist of fate, fitness club workers Linda (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt in a pompadour that recalls Johnny Suede) find the disc and try to wrangle a "Samaratin tax" out of the surly alcoholic. An avid Internet dater, Linda plans to use the money for plastic surgery, oblivious that her manager, Ted (The Visitor's Richard Jenkins), likes her just the way she is. Though it sounds like a Beltway remake of The Big Lebowski, the Coen entry it most closely resembles, this time the brothers concentrate their energies on the myriad insecurities endemic to the mid-life crisis--with the exception of Chad, who's too dense to share such concerns, leading to the funniest performance of Pitt's career. If Lebowski represented the Coen's unique approach to film noir, Burn sees them putting their irresistibly absurdist stamp on paranoid thrillers from Enemy of the State to The Bourne Identity. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from Burn After Reading (Click for larger image)
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