BURN AFTER READING

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 11:20am

Who else wants to see this as bad as I do? This looks hilarious. The Coens haven't made a really great comedy in quite a while (O BROTHER and THE BIG LEBOWSKI) so I'm excited to see this.

Plus it's great that they're going back to their usual gang of actors. Clooney probably would not have worked in NO COUNTRY.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 11:43am

I can't wait for this...it looks great.


And Pitt looks HILARIOUS. Updated On: 8/25/08 at 11:43 AM

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 1:04pm

My "most anticipated movie of the fall," really, so I hope it's good! It all looks great on paper (Coen brothers, amazing cast) and the preview is fun, so I'm looking forward to seeing it next month.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 1:05pm

Can't wait to miss it. So over those Coens. And Brad Pitt trying to do comedy, no thanks.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 1:24pm

What be wrong with Coens?

[Chevstriss]

Posted: 8/25/08 at 1:26pm

Clooney could definately Drink My Milkshake tho.

right after it brings all the boys to the yard.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 9:43am

Reviews are wildly mixed. From Salon.com:

Joel and Ethan Coen's new "Burn After Reading," with a loaded cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton, premiered last week to open the Venice Film Festival. The Coens' follow-up to their world-conquering "No Country for Old Men" has already sparked furious debate. The Guardian's Ronald Bergan dubs it "Burn After Watching" and says it's "an old-fashioned juvenile farce" and "a dumb film about dumb people." Yowtch. Take a gander at the pileup of reviews at "GreenCine Daily, though, and you'll hear plenty of contrary views: In fact, another Guardian critic calls it a "tightly wound, slickly plotted spy comedy," while Screen Daily's scribe says it's a "beautifully produced mix of spy story, U.S. zeitgeist satire and relationship drama." Variety's influential Todd McCarthy paints a muddled-to-negative view: The cast acts like "cartoon characters" and the film "feels misjudged from the opening scene."

[cubanpab]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 10:08am

cant wait. love the Coen's, love Frances, looks great.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 11:14am

I wish it was called BURN AFTER FILMING.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/2/08 at 11:28am

Not interested.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 9/14/08 at 3:56am

Oh. My. God. This movie was hilarious.

One of the most brilliant comedies I have seen in quite some time. The ending is amazing.

[artscallion]

Posted: 9/14/08 at 7:47am

Did you like it as much as you loved "The Love Guru"?

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 9/14/08 at 11:36am

I saw it last night. I can see why some people might have issues with it, especially people coming in expecting a light comedy, but I loved it.

[D2]

Posted: 9/14/08 at 11:47am

I saw it yesterday also - not without its flaws but I loved it too. I laughed out loud frequently, and I thought George Clooney was inspired!

[mominator]

Posted: 9/14/08 at 12:05pm

Saw it last night, it has flaws (as most movies do) but Clooney and Malkovich were great.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 9/15/08 at 2:11am

God this was awesome. I can't wait to see it again.

[misschung]

Posted: 9/15/08 at 8:40am

It's been awhile since I've seen a movie this silly and great. I have a newfound respect for Brad Pitt.

And George Clooney - "is that shellfood?" amazing

[Kasie]

Posted: 9/15/08 at 3:38pm

Love the Coen Brothers, but I'm just not excited about this movie. At all.

Call me crazy.

[jeremykushnier1fan]

Posted: 9/15/08 at 6:42pm

I'm glad some of you gave it good reviews, I really wanted to see it!

[lusciouslace]

Posted: 9/16/08 at 9:49am

I saw it the other day and truly enjoyed it. There are some very surprising moments and sometimes you catch yourself laughing at some very...unusual times. It will surprise you to the end. I think it was perfectly cast, even the guy who played Juno's dad in Juno was fantastic in his small part. It is very "quirky", but I think the highlights of the movie, for me, were Brad Pitt (he's hysterical) and John Malkovich. I recommend it!

[DBillyP]

Posted: 9/20/08 at 4:17pm

A slow start, but it builds to a fantastic ending, with hilarity in between. Brad Pitt is fantastic.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 9/20/08 at 7:04pm

I will say it's even funnier the second time around.

(MAJOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW)






I sort of saw the whole movie as an exercise in screwing with audience expectations. You may have expected a few characters to die at the beginning, but you probably did not expect Brad Pitt, one of the most simple and innocent characters, to get shot in the face in such a gruesome way. And you certainly won't expect Richard Jenkins to get hacked to death with an axe. I also sort of expected George Clooney's and Francis McDormand's relationship to work out and not end as terribly as that did. You sort of just keep expecting everything to come together and it never does...but it refuses to do so. Really hilarious way of parodying the spy thriller genre.
Updated On: 9/20/08 at 07:04 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 11:55am

I avoided this all fall, turned off by at least two reviews that suggested a really ugly film, with an ugly turn in the middle of the story.

But I just got an awards season screener, watched it at home, and was convulsed almost from the top. The movie is black, but hardly too ugly (and I'm a wimp when it comes to movies taking dark turns... I don't like to go there.) The bits of violence are less than 30 seconds of screen time, total -- this is a character driven farce with intricate absurdist plotting that's actually easy to follow and wildly funny, all the more so for its improbability. People will be surprised at the comparison, but its mixture of sex farce plotting and spy parody, it reminded me of the original PINK PANTHER. I laughed the way I did watching Capucine avoid Peter Sellers.

Clooney's performance is a gem, to my thinking a modern update on his grerat turn in OH BROTHER (still my favorite Cohen film). He is lean and mean, very slimmed down after SYRIANA and CLAYTON, and is terrific as the hyper-sensitive roue. Even Malkovich, who I have grown to loathe in his middle age, is used effectively. His scenes with Pitt -- starting with a middle of the night phone call that's almost a classic -- are just hysterically right.

McDormand is funny, but sometimes self-aware. She's the only question mark I have, though not a big one. I laughed at her, but I was also aware of her working hard, sometimes too hard, to bring the role to life. She's so innately sophisticated, it was initially hard to buy her as this ditz (I know, I know, FARGO... but she always reads so 'adult' and savvy).

And then there's Pitt -- priceless. I had seen the clips -- all the dancing sequences especially -- but was still surprised. What makes the character work is not just the bone-headedness. It's the total package - Pitt's about 40, so it's that much more bizarre to see the aging boy-man straining to be an adultr. And the man has a smattering of knowledge, which makes his rare bursts of articulated insight that much more baroque. I loved him.

I have a feeling a lot of people viewed the film as I did -- ad judged it unfairly by the trailer, which seemed to give away the whole film. Amazingly, there's much more there than we saw in those bites. If you missed it, take another look. It will likely be out on DVD just before the holidays or after.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 12:09am

Funniest film of 2008.

[sally1112]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 12:39pm

I enjoyed this film, but I just think it isn't as funny as people say. I love a dark comedy, but this movie is more odd than laugh out loud funny.