Brad Pitt Movie:

		List Price: $39.98		Label: Universal Studios Salesrank: 11729 Released: December 21, 2008
		Our Price: $12.10
		Used Price: $8.99
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Columbia Pictures Burn After Reading WS on Blu-Ray Disc

Description of Burn After Reading [Blu-ray]:
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)

Burn After Reading [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Idiotic comedy but with some funny parts.
2009-12-05 - Mostly an idiotic comedy that made little sense and was barely entertaining. A spoof of spies and spy agencies that doesn't quite make it.

Too Bad if you didn't like/get it. . .
2009-11-30 - It's all opinion. I think this is possibly the Coen Brothers best movie. Malkovich, Pitt, Clooney, Swinton, McDormand, all brilliant. You're free to not get it or not like it. I'm glad I did. I would encourage people to at least try it, just in case they feel as we did.

lolling the onestars
2009-11-24 - I just wanted to point out that every single complaint that the one-star reviews dole out are just icing on the cake as far as me totally loving this movie. The characters had no depth? The plot was too amorphous? THAT WAS THE POINT FOLKS. The characters are examples of typical character flaws that are variations on stupidity. You're supposed to enjoy their lives falling apart. I sure as hell did.

Plot is so fast paced I had no time to think. But I did laugh a lot. I loved it!
2009-11-11 - I had never heard of this 2008 Coen Brothers comedy. If it did play the theaters it must have had a short run. And I don't remember publicity of any kind. But it was on cable TV and when it listed the cast of characters, I knew I had to see it.

First of all, there is Frances McDormand. I've loved her performances ever since I saw Fargo years ago. In this film she plays the role of an aging gym instructor who doesn't have enough money for the cosmetic surgery which she is sure will help her land a man. She's looking for love through the internet and the men she meets are all losers. Another gym instructor, and her friend, is Brad Pitt, playing the part of a rather dense golden haired trainer. One day they just happen to find a computer disk which looks like it has some secret CIA information on it. The disk actually belongs to John Malkovich, who has been fired from the CIA and is writing a book about his experiences. Whether the so-called secret information on the disk is actually real is always a question mark. Malkovich is married to Tilda Swinton, a thin society type who is having an affair with George Clooney. Clooney is quite a womanizer. Even though he thinks he is happily married, there are several women in his life. Frances McDormand becomes one of them.

The plot is so faced paced that I had no time to think. But I did laugh a lot. Every scene is stretched to its outrageous edge. There's gunplay and murder throughout and most of the characters meet their end in some serendipitously outrageous way. The conclusion is fun and satisfying even though most of the characters have been killed off.

I am not one for comedies. But I loved this one. Highly recommended.


Just Fargo in DC
2009-11-04 - This movie is little more than Fargo in DC. A collection of disfunctional, self-destructive misfits whose lives manage to cross in various ways. Thought the movie had potential, but after an hour it was clear where we were headed. We saw it all in Fargo. Did not care to see it again.