Burn After Reading movie review
I was able to watch this movie while waiting for a conference call with a client late at night last week.
Burn After Reading is a comedy from the Coen Brothers (No Country for Old Men, Big Lebowski, The Ladykillers) and has some big-name stars like George Clooney, Brad Pitt and John Malkovich. Seems like a very potent brew for a great movie right? Not quite.
Just a brief synopsis. John Malkovich plays Osbourne Cox, a disgruntled CIA agent who quit his job after being demoted. He decides to write a memoir about his life in CIA which ended up on a CD which in turn ended up on a gym trainer’s hand, Chad, played by Brad Pitt.
Now Chad has this self-conscious colleague, Linda, who is dating Harry (Clooney) who in turn is having an affair with Osbourne’s wife. Chad and Linda wants to return the CD in exchange for some money but was turned down by Osbourne so they decided to sell it to the Russians. Hilarity and violence ensues.
This movie is made up of a myriad of stories that weirdly interconnects all characters that sometimes it feels like you’re watching an art film. Personally, too many things going on at the same time doesn’t work for me and this movie has a lot of disjointed scenes that is painful to watch. My wife even fell asleep watching it.
I guess there will be lots of people (die-hard Coen brothers fans) that would enjoy this movie and there are some who would see it as a waste of an all-star cast. I fall on the latter group.
Don’t get me wrong, Malkovich, Pitt and Clooney didn’t disappoint with their performances. Pitt was particularly excellent on this one in a goofy kind of way. It’s the script or maybe the editing that failed the movie. All in all, it’s just a shallow crime comedy with a lot of cursing and will make you feel a bit stumped after watching it.
Verdict: 2 out of 5 stars. If you really want to watch it, just wait for the DVD. You won’t miss out a lot if you skip this movie though.
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Filed under: Moviesss
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