Burn After Reading [DVD] [2008]

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• This item: Burn After Reading [DVD] [2008] DVD ~ George Clooney

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Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Synopsis
The Coen Brothers re-team with George Clooney for this blackly comic film set in the world of a former spy. John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, and Tilda Swinton are along for the sure-to-be wild ride filled with the Coens' trademark humour. With their overtly comedic follow-up Burn After Reading, the Coen Brothers return from the dark, dank recesses of the human psyche they traversed in their Oscar-winning No Country For Old Men. For those unfamiliar with the landscape of modern movie psychoanalysis, this puts the fraternal filmmakers square in the cruel, misanthropic, and farcical realm of their 1990s-era body of work, somewhere between the tragicomic crime thriller of Fargo and the disconnected noir-homage anti-storytelling of The Big Lebowski, with 2007's No Country retroactively adding new nihilism-tinged dimensions of smart scepticism to the proceedings. In a more linear trajectory, Burn After Reading also stands as the third entry, after Blood Simple and Fargo, in what could be an unofficial Tragedy of Human Idiocy trilogy, wherein characters make the most outlandishly moronic moves to devastating consequences simply by adhering to true human behaviour. Indeed, Carter Burwell's emotionally weighty score, which washes over biting scenes of explosive, anesthetizing belly laughs, is very reminiscent of his Fargo work. Burn After Reading is ostensibly structured and propelled by a spy-thriller plotline involving a classified CD lost by a disgraced CIA spook and found by two simple gym employees. The CIA superior who learns of the film's events (always second-hand and sometimes along with the viewer) doesn't know what to make of it, and why would he? This is the first Coen film in almost 20 years not shot by cinematographer Roger Deakins, yet the ‘new’ guy, Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men), has created as visceral and emotionally fraught a high-definition cartoon as any since Barton Fink.

DVD features English and Spanish language soundtracks.

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104 Reviews 5 star:  (23) 4 star:  (20) 3 star:  (17) 2 star:  (7) 1 star:  (37)           Average Customer Review 2.9 out of 5 stars (104 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   55 of 69 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Coen Brothers classic , 22 Nov 2008 By  J. Minogue (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Like KM I had read the mixed reviews of Burn After Reading and perhaps my expectations were lowered because of that. It's not in the same class as No Country For Old Men - which I thought was absolutely brilliant - and it lacks sympathetic characters, but it is very good, well observed and funny in the black humoured way that Coen Brothers films such as Blood Simple and Raising Arizona are funny. The opening shot leads us down from the stratosphere into the CIA offices in Virginia to witness the demotion of John Malkovich's character, Osbourne Cox - but these are not the all powerful intelligence services of 24 and the like. In Burn Afer Reading the intelligence services are bumbling and inefficient. Osbourne Cox is perhaps the most intelligent character in the film and it does him no good - he is completely ineffectual and his inability to deal with people leads the inter-twining stories towards horrible results. Tilda Swinton is superb as his cold wife. She is terrifying and controlling as Clooney's character's lover and her decision to divorce and burn her husband's information onto hard disc precipitates the rest of the action. Pitt, McDormand and Clooney have fun with their single minded characters. Pitt is very very funny as the gym's personal trainer. The theme of hidden intelligence is key throughout the film. The senior CIA men observe all and understand and care about nothing. That seemed the most credible part of all. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   32 of 40 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars The humour is in the tragedy/farce as it plays out between the characters, 16 Feb 2009 By  Joe Lafferty - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This is a Coen brothers movie, and one of their comedies, so: 1. don't expect any jokes - the humour is in the tragedy/farce as it plays out between the characters 2. don't expect a simple, linear, story-line with a happy ending - the whole theme of the movie, as many of their movies, is the futility of life in a post modern world. I won't go over a précis of the movie, as other reviewers have done this, suffice to say that the movie is a mix of a man in personal meltdown (John Malkovich is superb): career, marriage, personal life - striving for some sense of meaning and that he has made a difference - with overwhelming feelings of rejection and being cast aside by the system, in a loveless marriage with the calculating, freezingly cold yet trapped (Tilda Swinton). The first interaction between them is her saying `Did you find Jesus?' which causes a double take from Malkovich - then she explains, did you get the cheeses... and humiliates him further for his ineptitude. The other key characters are George Cloony as a narcissistic dilettante/womaniser (Cloony - who is often brilliant in Coen Brothers movies, he is just so willing to send himself up), an air head personal trainer (Brad Pitt - who also does a great job of sending himself up in this movie), and Frances McDormand who plays a tragic character who becomes convinced that cosmetic surgery will lead to love and happiness. And will do anything to get the surgery... It's like watching a car crash in slow motion... you just know it's going to turn out bad, and of course it does. It all spirals out of control with a hapless 'intelligence' agency looking on trying to figure out what to do with what seems to be unfolding. Brilliant. Comment Comments (3) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars A great cast and very funny dark humour make this film a hit., 27 May 2009 By  Dragonlord (Cornwall) - See all my reviews Brad Pitt is a extremely versatile actor and is having a real laugh playing this air head gym instructor who keeps on landing himself in trouble. George Cloony is a fitness and sex freak who always seems to be paranoid. John Malkovich is an ex CIA annalist who has the most funny angry temper that I've seen in a long time. Tilda Swinton plays a most excellent ice queen. Frances McDormand works with Brad Pitt at the gym and is the main cause of all the crazy chaos about nothing that really matters which makes this film so funny. I won't say to much more as I don't want to give to much away but, there are some real shocking surprises in this silly complex and dark humoured film. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 104 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews 2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre I thought, with this cast,that the film would be excellent but it was not. Just OK for a TV fim - pleased I did not pay money to see it at the cinema Published 1 day ago by Mrs. Maxine Maher 3.0 out of 5 stars So the Coen Brothers decided to typecast an entire film... Judging by the wildly varying opinions on Amazon already, it seems that the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading is the very definition of the phrase `you either love it or hate it'... Read more Published 8 days ago by Matthew Mercy 5.0 out of 5 stars Coen Brothers Return to Form. Don't Miss if you liked Fargo I am not sure why this only got three stars here. Perhaps it was too difficult for most people to accept Brad Pitt in a comedic role. Read more Published 10 days ago by Mr. T. White 4.0 out of 5 stars Good Coen Brothers romp In Washington, D.C., a group of seemingly unrelated characters and a tangle of subplots makes for an entertaining, if lightweight, star-studded comedy with tragic overtones. Read more Published 16 days ago by Kona 4.0 out of 5 stars Tilda Swinton is Superb. I^m not usually a fan of Coen brothers movies. They make everyone look as unattractive as possible and set them in real dives. But this was a good surprise. Read more Published 22 days ago by Edna Little. 5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Coen If you like Coen films, then you will like this. If the only Coean film you like is No Country for Old Men, then maybe this isnt for you, but if your a Fargo,... Read more Published 1 month ago by MichaelFJ 5.0 out of 5 stars great - just what I expected It had a bit of a slow start, but I found it hilarious. Who would have thought George Clooney could make furniture? Read more Published 1 month ago by jenny Cee 1.0 out of 5 stars Tedious at best! I tried to watch this film about ten times before i got through the first twenty minutes they were so dull! Unfortunately the film failed to pick up. Read more Published 2 months ago by V. Mundell 1.0 out of 5 stars Dont spend your money... I didnt have any expectations for the film and even so, i was dissapointed, with the cast that it has, it did very little for me....i wouldnt spend my money on it! Published 2 months ago by Lynnie 1.0 out of 5 stars What Were They Thinking? When making this film, what were they thinking? Did the film company believe that a cast of fine actors would save this script? Read more Published 2 months ago by R. Anderson Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 104 customer reviews...

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