An all-star cast, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich, come together in this outrageous spy comedy about murder, blackmail, sex addiction and physical fitness!
Burn after Reading, released in the UK just nine months after their last film, is the latest comedy effort from the quirk-addicted Coen Brothers. Unfortunately, this rather light helping about ridiculous actions of stupid gym workers and incompetent spies, may have been done a disservice being released so soon after Oscar winner "No Country for Old Men". Those expecting a second masterpiece will be disappointed, because, honestly, this really isn't a masterpiece. But, I'm glad to say, it still is lots of fun. The story isn't simple. Brad Pitt (who turns goofy stupidity into an art form) plays Chad, a brain-less, bike riding gym instructor, who finds a CD containing unauthorised CIA information. These files are from the home of a certain Osbourne Cox (a stunning John Malkovich) who has been sacked from the secret service for "drink problems". His wife, Katie, spends too much time having sex with serial dater Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) to notice. This Harry character spends his time building sex toys at home and sleeping with women he finds on dating sites. One of these women happens to be Linda Litzke, who has a desperate self-conscious need to have plastic surgery but cannot raise the needed capital. And, as it turns out, she works at the same gym as our dear friend Chad (Mr Pitt). Complex, yes! The story really gets moving when Chad and Linda decide to enter into a little blackmail activity with Mr Cox, a man you really don't want to mess with. With all the characters in place the Coen Brothers have a lot of fun showing how stupidity and quirky slapstick humour can be one of the best forms of entertainment. Apart from a rather quickly wrapped up ending (though this is better than outstaying its welcome) the film is nearly the masterpiece Coen-fans were hoping for. And watch out, the bloody and often shocking violence seen in "No Country..." hasn't gone completely. There are some very bloody "shock moments" here too. Though, the scary thing is, they are some of the funniest in the film.
The Coen brothers were on top form in 2008: travelling from one end of the cinematic spectrum with 'No Country For Old Men' to the other; with 'Burn After Reading': an offbeat, screwball comedy about a sacked CIA spy (the ever excellent John Malkovich), his unfaithful wife (steely Tilda Swinton) a smirking philander (George Clooney doing his Carey Grant schtick) and a pair of dim witted fitness instructors (Francis McDormand & Brad Pitt). Hilarious and intentionally convoluted, the story sees Pitt and McDormand stumble across a disc containing Malkovich's spy time memoirs, wrongly presuming its top secret information; this hapless, but likeable, duo make a bungled attempt to blackmail the cuckolded, stressed out former spy. Meanwhile, George Clooney is in bed with Malkovich's seemingly frigid, condescending wife (Tilda Swinton doing her 'evil sexy' thing from 'The Beach' and 'Narnia' again). Poor old John Malkovich; I was rooting for him the whole time, but alas, things soon turn nasty; and the throwaway hi-jinks of the first half become violent, and deadly at that. Consistently entertaining, but capped off with one of the funniest epilogues I've seen in years, for I guarantee you'll be in stitches by the time J.K. Simmons's CIA superior tries to make sense of it all. Incendiary humour.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. An all-star cast, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich, come together in this outrageous spy comedy about murder, blackmail, sex addiction and physical fitness! When a disc filled with some of the CIA's most irrelevant secrets gets in the hands of two determined, but dim-witted, gym employees, the duo are intent on exploiting their find. But since blackmail is a trade better left for the experts, events soon spiral out of everyone's and anyone's control, resulting in a non-stop series of hilarious encounters! From Joel and Ethan Coen, the Academy Award winning directors of No Country For Old Men and The Big Lebowski, comes this brilliantly clever and endlessly entertaining movie that critics are calling smart, funny, and original.
John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney and Brad Pitt star in this Coen brothers crime comedy concerning the whereabouts of a sensitive disc containing the incriminating memoirs of alcoholic CIA agent Osbourne Cox (Malkovich). Cox's wife, Katie (Swinton), who is having an affair with married federal marshall, Harry Pfarrer (Clooney), is making plans to leave her husband, and is advised by her divorce lawyer to copy his personal files onto a disc. The disc finds its way via a circuitous route to the Hardbodies fitness gym, where two unscrupulous employees, Linda (McDormand) and Chad (Pitt) decide to exploit their find for all they can get. Events soon spiral out of everyone's control in a cascading series of surreal and darkly comic encounters and misunderstandings.
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