Film: Burn After Reading (new Coen bros.)

[AmorRoark]

Nobody has seen this yet? What the fuck. It's not even on the first page anymore.

NSFW:

Not really much of a spoiler... but regardless I'll put it in anyway. I saw it tonight and it was pretty good. I went into it with medium expectations and that's what they delivered. I love the way the Coens always make their plots a giant mess and then are totally fine just leaving it be. No need to wrap up all the loose ends they've created. It's strange really it's almost as if they give the audience closure with just how absurd everything plays out. Brad Pitt's performance was really fantastic. I was very impressed with him yet again. All the other actors, IMO, lived up to their impressive histories but didn't do anything super over-the-top. I was sad to see that the Coens killed off such a likable character but alas it was near the end so wasn't too unfortunate.

4/5 stars

 

[L2R]

i gotta wait another month.

 

[junctionalfunkie]

I saw it yesterday.

Pretty good, compared to other Coen works.

Fucking great, compared to most movies.

 

[jpgrdnr]

Its fucking awesome.

 

[MynameisnotDeja]

Yay I'm so glad to hear the good reviews. I'm going to see it in a couple weeks. Excited!

 

[LoveAlways]

This looks great. I love the Coen bros and you cant go wrong with the cast
However I'm still salty about the $20 I spent to see Pineapple Express so unless someone else buys my ticket I'll wait for it to come on DVD

 

[His Name Is Frank]

I just got back from seeing it. Not one of their greatest movies, but even a mediocre Coen brothers film is better than 80% of the movies Hollywood churns out on a weekly basis.


The story.......well it's kind of complicated. Even the characters are confused about what's going on and who is who. That's what made it so great for me. I love Francis McDormand! I would watch her do a two hour commercial for Oxi-Clean. She was my favorite character in the movie. Seemingly meek at one moment and ballsy as hell the next. This woman needs to be in far more movies than she is. I have yet to see her give a bad performance.


Brad Pitt was a bit underused in this film, but he had a couple of funny parts. He has a knack for playing borderline retarded. George Clooney was also great in this film. I'm no Clooney fan, but his range in this was outstanding. He's a jerk, he's a womanizer, he's a sweetheart, he's a paranoid freak. Definitely one of his best performances.


Tilda Swindon and John Malkovich were alright. I love em both but Tilda especially, was just too bland. John was his usual freakish self. I wish they had used him more in the movie. There were times that I forgot that he was even in it.


All in all, I gave it three stars. A must see for all Coen fans. We get them the most. Amy summed this movie up the best in one of her post. The Coens created chaos and didn't really worry about tying up the loose ends. The fun was watching the disaster unfold. It wasn't a beautiful disaster, but it was pretty to look at.

 

[steinanwine]

3 out of 5 stars. This wasn't that bad but I wasn't that impressed or left feeling anything special. It was fairly funny, George Clooney was pretty funny, so was Brad Pitt. Sadly I was annoyed with Francis McDormand. Its a fairly forgettable movie I suppose, especially compared to all the other Coen Bros films.

 

[L2R]

solid

for me. the trailer, which highlights the most slapstick reactions and tones do this film a horrible disservice.
where i was expecting a laughoutloud riot of slapstick nonesense, what i actually got was a dark, witty character study. my expectations threw me and i found myself noticing how unfunny it was to begin with and it also created a disappoitment over some sudden developments (you know what i mean).

taking my POV outside this apprehension, i did really enjoy it and so did my wife. very, very witty and clever, and very, VERY dark.

 

[psood0nym]

^Yeah, an unconventional comedy to be sure. It's dark, cynical, even bordering on nihilistic. I have to admit though, that sudden development you found disappointing--and I'm pretty sure we're referring to the same thing--I thought was one of the funniest events in the film. I didn't know for sure what kind of beast I was dealing with until that happened. I wish I had known it was dark comedy going into it, since I think I would have appreciated the earlier scenes more. 3.5 stars out of 5.

 

[Feels]

Well this film pretty much confirmed the Coens are out-and-out misanthropes. I love some of their work, but eh.. this one was pretty iffy.

 

[Chaos Butterfly]

Saw it.

Loved it.

4 stars worth of gold

 

[ladyinthesky]

4/5 stars
i loved it and i got a good laugh

 

[marissaaaaaa]

i wanted to see this a lot, but my mom and her boyfriend said it was terrible. they also saw don't mess with the zohan and thought it was amazing...so i don't trust their opinion very much. lol

edited
:]

 

[TheDeceased]

This was the last nail in the coffin for the Coen Brothers.

Did somebody say this film was very very witty?!?

What part?

 

[kzorro]

I didn't like it very much. I watched it without knowing what it was about, and it was just really confusing and the ending was really anti-climactic

 

[AmorRoark]

This was the last nail in the coffin for the Coen Brothers.

Did somebody say this film was very very witty?!?

What part?

"last nail in the coffin"? Even if you didn't like this film you can't believe No Country for Old Men was actually bad, or can you?

 

[DarthMom]

man, i was so looking forward to this, it was one of our official "new years day hangover" films...movies i have been wanting to watch but can't find the time. when i hear words like nihilistic to describe a new black comedy, i get a little excited, unfortunately, it didn't serve.

it was a big disappointment. pitt and clooney certainly disprove their pretty boy acting status, as they are the most interesting of the bunch. but the film is overwhelmingly boring. though, there are a lot of interesting twists, but it just leaves you hanging and not in a good way.

 

[L2R]

This was the last nail in the coffin for the Coen Brothers.

Did somebody say this film was very very witty?!?

What part?

the setup with the dating park bench scenes with clooney's paranoia was clever and very funny imo

 

[TheDeceased]

"last nail in the coffin"? Even if you didn't like this film you can't believe No Country for Old Men was actually bad, or can you?

Yes I can. I thought No Country for Old Men was terrible.

I have not enjoyed their last four films. Which isn't very many nails for a coffin, especially a two person coffin...

the setup with the dating park bench scenes with clooney's paranoia was clever and very funny

Funny, yes... Well, maybe... But clever?

The script, in comparison to some of their previous endeavors (The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, etc) is pretty pale, don't you think?

There aren't any characters in Burn that have the 'gift of the gab' to quote Big Dan from O Brother.

In fact practically all of the characters in the film are inarticulate idiots.

To quote an article in Time magazine:

Burn After Reading is a movie about stupidity that left me feeling stupid.

I seriously suspect that the Coen brothers made the stupidest film that they could, Richard Bachman style, in order to see if their fans blindly love everything that they do.


Here's the link to the review in Time:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1837730,00.html