The Emperor has no clothes? (Burn After Reading (DVD))

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Burn After Reading (DVD)
Date:	06/04/09 (224 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: McDorrmand

Disadvantages: Boring!

I never quite got what all the fuss was all about with the Coen Brothers, until you look at their back catalogue and discover they directed some movies you had no idea were theirs, and some really cool ones too, like the excellent Millers Crossing and The Hudsucker Proxy, the boys in their twentieth year of film making. You always associate their writing and directing partnership as somewhat geeky, oddities like Raising Arizona and Barton Think coming to mind, an acquired arty taste. But like a disease that can be terminal there's good Coens and bad Coens, benign or malignant. The boys are so inconsistent that their boring movies unfairly stick in your throat, 'Burn After Reading' comfortably into the bad Coens category. The problem is reputable film critics keep telling them how great their bad movies are and such is their reputation they get to keep making those oddities that crash at the box office, but because they are labelled art house they can keep getting away with it and the funding keeps coming, the studios awaiting the next Big Lebowski...

Their reputation was seemingly made by the cult 80s movie 'Blood Simple', and then set in stone with Fargo. But however hard you try not to rent their bad movies you end up doing just that, 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' and 'The Man Who Wasn't There', probably two of the most tedious films I have ever seen. But in 2008 the Coen boys had two projects on the go, this and the much hyped No Country for Old Men, not exactly setting the box office on fire but films we movie fans pack the multiplexes and rent regardless. Fortunately for them we all went out and rented Burn After Reading, a real tedious affair, yet again packed full of big name stars who want some of that Coen Brothers kudos rubbing off on them, but dumped in a surprisingly unsophisticated, almost screwball, twisty grown up drama, the cast forgetting to read the script as they are beguiled by the Coen boys apparent wisdom. Everyone wants to work with these guys, be it thespians like John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton or airheads like Brad Pitt - George Clooney and Francis McDormand (Joel's wife in real life, this her seventh film with her hubby) returning for more, this film known as the 'idiot trilogy' for Clooney, the Mexican again playing a cretin for the Coens, which both parties giggle about. But if Clooney and co actually stood back and watched the films they are in they may realise sometimes the Emperor has no clothes...

-The Cast-

George Clooney ... Harry Pfarrer
Frances McDormand ... Linda Litzke
Brad Pitt ... Chad Feldheimer
John Malkovich ... Osborne Cox
Tilda Swinton ... Katie Cox
Richard Jenkins ... Ted Treffon
Elizabeth Marvel ... Sandy Pfarrer


-The Plot-

Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) has just been relieved from his senior position at his CIA desk for Eastern Europe for drinking on the job, forced to resign, his socialite Washington wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) not best pleased with her increasingly tiresome husbands status elapse. But Katie is no saint either, quietly having an affair with a needy man called Harry (Clooney), who's married to Sandy (Elizabeth Marvel), a children's book writer who, you guessed it, is sleeping with her publicist..
Osborne wants to write a book too, evidence enough its time for Katie to divorce him sharpish, her lawyer advising her to find grounds for it first so to be able to get hold of his town house and pension, so choosing to copy secrets from his hard-drive of his exploits on and off the job in Langley (the CIA headquarters). But when she unknowingly leaves the disc at her local gym, 'Hardbodies', one of the employees finds it and reads it, discovering valuable spy stuff on it.

The employee in question is goofy Chad (Brad Pitt), who, although wanting to return the disc, decides, with the help of his co employee Linda (Frances McDormand), to blackmail who ever owns it - Osborne Cox. Not a good idea when his wife is about to take him to the cleaners. But Linda is far more interested in men, internet dating and plastic surgery her main spend, hoping any money they can make from the CD can pay for some plastic surgery, the years not allowed to catch up on you quick in the physical fitness business. But Mr Right maybe already be close at hand, gym boss Ted (Richard Jenkins, also 3 Coen films to his name) having a thing for her. But it's an unexpected meeting for Linda on one of her many dates that ties things neat and cheap in the films narrative, the philandering Harry (Clooney) her next rendezvous. But when an irate Cox refuses to pay Chad she will have to put her cosmetic nip n tuck on hold unless they can find another buyer, things always complicated when selling state secrets, idiot Chad soon coming to the attention of the CIA for trying to do just that when he suggest the Russian embassy.

-The Conclusion-

As I said before, it's bad Coens, an extremely tedious not so comic tale of Washington DC thinking class's mid-life crisis, hardly the most appetising of movie narratives. It was tagged as a 'spy thriller', but about as intriguing as the moderate suduko puzzle in your favoured tabloid. The prestige cast thought they were on winner here but once they had seen the movie premier they must have felt right hams. This was a stinker! Brad Pitt and the like play out of type which does garner some laughs but Clooney doing black comedy is very tedious, he responsible for the three worst Coen Brothers movies of all time. For a so-called intelligent audience the writing is very dull, the soundtrack little better and equally out of context. It was only the ever reliable Frances McDormand that garnered the second dooyoo star for her hubby's effort, the only one loyal to the pictures success in any way. Shame the Coens didn't burn the script after reading it!

= = = = Special Features = = = =

'Finding the Burn'

The cast and crew talk about their tedious movie and try to convince you its better than it is.

'DC Insiders: Run Amok'

More behind the scenes stuff...

'Welcome Back George'

Clooney must have pulled rank and insisted he was the star of the movie and so demanded his own bit.

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Imdb.com scores 7.3 out of 10.0 (61,324 votes)
RuN-TiMe 96 minutes
Any 2 films for 2 nights for £6 deal.
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Summary: Dull