This hilarious dark-comedy with an all-star cast is well shot, well written, and very well acted. With actors like Brad Pitt and George Clooney, who more often than not end up playing the roles of Brad Pitt and George Clooney, it's refreshing to see them play unique characters and have them performed so well. From the subtle neurotic twitches and seemingly ADHD behaviour from George Clooney's character, to the not so subtle, dopey disposition of Brad Pitt's character, this movie offers a wide variety of entertaining and well performed characters. As expected from the Coen Brothers, it's not your typical comedy. The music plays out in a seemingly serious but parodic tone, similarly to Coen Brothers'2009 film 'A Serious Man' - which I would also recommend. In a way, it's kind of a parody movie of the spy genre. But one wherein they want to break your expectations and make fun of movie cliches. Not only are intentional red herrings shown throughout the film as part of the joke, but there's a little bit of commentary in how certain characters act. Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand's characters consistently make their decisions as though they think they're living in a cliched spy movie, giving the impressions that their characters have probably seen too many movies. Part of the hilarity of the film is how it's universe consistently shuts them down for having false expectations. It's as though the film's saying to the audience, "We're going to make the movie we want to make because those other movies are fucking stupid". It's humor exists on many levels with both outward ridiculousness and small subtleties. So although you can find humor in this movie no matter what type of watcher you are, You're really not getting the full experience unless you're actually paying attention. It's a movie that has humor throughout but doesn't necessarily make it obvious where the jokes are. Much of the humour is found in how characters act, rather than simply delivering punchlines the whole movie. Anyway, this is a great comedy from two great directors and I would recommend checking it out.
An absolutely hilarious story about 2 dimwitted gym employees who find what they believe to be government secrets. They then try to turn a profit on the disc, one to help finance plastic surgery. This is a must watch, funny, drama, and a contraption built by Clooney that will leave you speechless.
What on earth was this? I have not the slightest idea what I watched there, but that is probably exactly what the writers wanted to achieve. Sadly, I couldn't relate to any of the characters or to anything at all. Not sure if that's also what the writers intended.
This was the first Coens comedies I managed to watch in theatres, so it has a special place in my heart. Retrospectively it’s been usually counted as one of their minor works, but it’s still my favorite among their comedies with George Clooney. It got great pacing (which is rare for the Coens), the mandatory silly characters, and absurd situations based on actual human vices and relatable problems of our world. The film is dressed as a proper spy flick, but the characters are just too stupid to act it out as the audience would expect.
George Clooney’s marvelous arts and crafts work has the most impact, but I was hoping they slowly built up tension before the reveal.
"I don't know sir." "I don't fucking know either."
Fuck all goes no where, but it makes it look good. Still a relatively pointless waste of time with some dry/dark humor thrown in.
“What a clusterf***.” The Coen brothers’ black comedy Burn After Reading is a complete mess that doesn’t deliver that many laughs. When two gym trainers find a computer disc containing the memoir of a CIA analyst they attempt to blackmail him; meanwhile a philandering US marshal grows increasingly paranoid that he’s being spied on by someone. Starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt, the film has an impressive cast that gives fairly good performances. The problem is, most of the characters are unlikable assholes. And the plot goes nowhere, which would be alright if it was a fun ride or had some clever twist of irony…but it doesn’t. Still, the satiric wit of the Coen brothers makes for a few fun comedic moments. Burn After Reading is entertaining at times but doesn’t really amount to much.
Simple story, don't know if they intentionally tried to make it more complex! Bad storytelling!
5/10
Funny at times like the J.K. Simmons bits but most of the time just extremely annoying characters
Was expecting something else. Kind of weird ending.
Great movie. Really entertaining acting work from Clooney and Pitt.
It was a solid effort w/ an extraordinary cast, who were all fantastic, but the story left a bit to be desired but, I suppose that was sort of the point. It's a story about a couple of bumbling gym employees who find what they believe to be government secrets and the confusion it causes in figuring out what they really have in their possession. In the end, it turns out that they have notes related to a former government security analyst's memoir. The experience in trying to sell what they believe to be sensitive information to the Russians is detailed in this movie. The entire idea was that no one was on the same page, and even in the end, they couldn't figure out what had taken place, b/c it was so bizarre. It's difficult to dislike it, b/c the cast really was great, but the story lacked, and the humor was really nuanced.
It had a couple of funny scenes but honestly it finished without me even realizing. A film for mindless watching
love this kind of humor
Great characters and acting, and a little similar to the The Big Lebowski in the sense that it’s a wacky plot throwing one or two characters in a world that they don’t quite understand.
Unfortunately it’s not as funny and lacking in memorable scenes.
I also think the plot could’ve used more structure and subtext, there’s not much meaning I can pull from it.
Still, I do like the satire of spy movies that’s in here, and how Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand are constantly making their decisions as if they’re living in a cliché spy movie.
The filmmaking’s also very good, great use of light in particular.
6/10
There’s just something about the Coen brothers doing comedy that does not mesh with my preferences. I do like O Brother Where Art Thou and Raising Arizona, but usually their efforts fall flat and Burn After Reading is no exception. I didn’t find this funny or interesting, I hated most of the characters, and there wasn’t a sense of satire or farce that worked for me. I don’t know what the movie was trying to say or accomplish, and overall was just a strong pass from me. I will say that I thought Brad Pitt’s performance was hilarious, and in particular the phone call scene and his inspired reading of the word “shit” did cause me to laugh out loud.
I’ve watched this one before but hadn’t marked it or realised when starting again. Only a bit into the movie did I remember some details.
It way entertaining and there were some unexpected twists. Quite a few hood actors involved—though they usually play the same kind of characters.
Good for a lazy afternoon.
Toxic fools and weak-willed straightmen. Typical Coen recipe.
The plot is too convoluted though and not told in an interesting way (e.g. if the entire narrative was told in media res from Agent Palmer to J.K. Simmons' character with flashbacks). The runtime is too long for the story at hand which could easily fit in a TV episode.
This film has been way too hyped up for me, I love Coen Brothers film and usually I rate them pretty high but suggest to maybe go in with lower expectations with this one as for me a lot of the jokes don't hit the way I was expecting but when they hit they really hit hard and by far my favourites in this film were John Malkovich (Osbourne Cox) and Brad Pitt (Chad Feldheimer) who whenever they were on screen had me laughing and the phone call scene had me in stitches.
Otherwise it’s an alright watch and it is still full of that smart Coen Brothers writing, but just felt underwhelmed by it and maybe I might need to watch it again. Give it a watch if you have a bit of time and want a little laugh, but definitely not their best effort in my opinion.
could watch this movie again and again and again absolutely my taste in humor! great acting.
Not for everyone and in line with Coen brothers' other productions. Dry, dark humored and banal in every regard. If you are into dramedy, it is a must watch. Otherwise skip.
"I don't know sir." "I don't fucking know either."
Everything with J.K. Simmons is great. Brad Pitt is a lot of fun. The story is overly convoluted and there really isn't any point.
Average film sometimes even boring. Starts out slow but does get better halfway through. 6.5/10
Review by Enrico CamillieriBlockedParent2020-05-13T13:03:19Z
DISCLAIMER: I did not see this movie in its original language(English), but in a dubbed version(Italian). I may have missed some nuances.
This movie left me with a weird sensation. You know when you spend an evening watching random YouTube videos and, at end, you feel like you wasted time? You weren't exactly bored but still, it didn't feel like a good use of the evening? That was Burn After Reading for me.
This dark comedy had a lot of potential that was kinda wasted in an excessive convoluted story. Not hard to follow but it felt forced at times.
The cast gave a great performance all around. Clooney's portrayal of the neurotic Harry Pfaffer is very entertaining and the same can be said for Pitt's dopey character. Special mention for J.K. Simmons: even though he has only few lines he's really a great actor.
I appreciated the cinematography. The movie was shot like a thriller/spy story and that made the contrast with the humorous theme much more evident and, IMO, funnier.
The story was pointlessly convoluted with so many "twist" you kinda start expecting them halfway through. I think I get what the movie was going for (the contrast between how much these civilian care for this information and how little the CIA seems to care about the whole situation ) but it wasn't executed as well as I would have liked.
In the end, I would recommend Burn After Reading only to fans of the genre AND the directors.
6/10