Click here to visit the homepage of Mark's List, a Gay and Lesbian Entertainment and Travel site. Bookmark and Share Subscribe to email

Burn After Reading

Reviewed by Mark Haines
   
George C;looney, Frances McDormand
Burn After Reading Trailer and Synopsis Florida Movie Theater Showtime Listings

 Apple iTunes

 

 Mark's List at the Movies ®
Burn After Reading is a dark comedy film, set for a September 12, 2008 release, starring John Malkovich, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt, and made by Joel and Ethan Coen.

Burn After ReadingAccording to the Coens the plot will focus on the world of the CIA, physical fitness in Washington, D.C., and internet dating. The film is the brothers' first since the Academy Award winning No Country For Old Men and has been described by Tilda Swinton as "...a kind of monster caper movie. All of us are monsters - like, true monsters. It's ridiculous. It's much lighter than No Country for Old Men."

Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is a CIA analyst who quits his job at the CIA after being demoted because of his drinking problem. He then decides to write a memoir about his life in the CIA. His wife, Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton), wants to divorce Osbourne and, at the counsel of her divorce lawyer, she copies all his personal financial files off his computer along with his work-in-progress memoirs. This disk eventually finds its way to Hardbodies, a workout gym. Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), who works at the gym, finds the disc and intends to blackmail Cox with his former employee Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand). George Clooney appears as Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer who is sleeping with Katie, Osbourne's wife.

 
 
Other Movies Opening in Florida 9/12/2008
 
Based on George Cukor’s 1939 film and Clare Boothe Luce’s 1936 stage play, The Women whisks us into a busy pocket of Manhattan society, where the publishing, fashion and finance industries play. The Women opens 9/12/2008.Based on George Cukor’s 1939 film and Clare Boothe Luce’s 1936 stage play, The Women whisks us into a busy pocket of Manhattan society, where the publishing, fashion and finance industries play. Full Movie Review: The Women opens 9/12/2008. Righteous Kill is a action-crime film directed by Jon Avnet, and starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Donnie Wahlberg, and Curtis Jackson. The film will be released on September 12, 2008.
The Family That Preys is a 2008 comedy-drama film written and directed by Tyler Perry, who also co-produced and co-stars. The film starring Alfre Woodard, Kathy Bates, Sanaa Lathan. The film will be released on September 12, 2008. The film focuses on "two families from different sides of the tracks that become intimately involved in love and business".The Family That Preys is a 2008 comedy-drama film written and directed by Tyler Perry, who also co-produced and co-stars. The film starring Alfre Woodard, Kathy Bates, Sanaa Lathan. The film will be released on September 12, 2008. The film focuses on "two families from different sides of the tracks that become intimately involved in love and business". The plot of Burn after Reading focuses on the world of the CIA, physical fitness in Washington, D.C., and internet dating. The film is the Coen brothers' first since the Academy Award winning No Country For Old Men and has been described by Tilda Swinton as "...a kind of monster caper movie. All of us are monsters - like, true monsters. It's ridiculous."The plot of Burn after Reading focuses on the world of the CIA, physical fitness in Washington, D.C., and internet dating. The film is the Coen brothers' first since the Academy Award winning No Country For Old Men and has been described by Tilda Swinton as "...a kind of monster caper movie. All of us are monsters - like, true monsters. It's ridiculous." Full Movie Review: Burn after Reading opens 9/12/2008.
 
 

John MalkovichThree cheers for the Coen brothers absurd film. In Burn After Reading, Washington's covert power brokers and intellectuals are taken on by two gym workers, one of whom needs money to pay for extensive reworking of her physical appearance.  "I have gone just about as far as I can go with this body," she repeats at several appropriate moments.

As one misunderstanding piles onto another in Burn After Reading, more and more characters are drawn into an escapade with moments so hilariously illogical that the audience is left in stitches. Pointless acts and random occurrences begin to appear to be tied together, part of an ever more and more sinister plot, or at least that's how it appears to the characters. Meanwhile, the shadowy CIA is having a field day trying to figure out what is going on. Now throw in a few not so confused Russians, but nobody is listening to them.

Bradd PittThe star studded cast includes John Malkovich who puts in a stellar performance. Brad Pitt is the perfect stereotypical not so bright gym worker, Chad. I kept trying to figure out if the gum chewing, dance music obsessed Chad was supposed to be Gay (think Jack in Will and Grace) or if he was just a little too wired for the rest of the world. Frances McDormand, another gym worker, plays a completely believable person obsessed with her fading appearance; so obsessed that she'll unintentionally stake everything, including the lives of everyone she comes in contact with to sell what she believes are "top secret" contents on a CD to Russians, Chinese, the CIA, the original owner or anyone who might have the money to pay for her makeover. Sometimes you believe what you want until you believe it's true.

Mark's List Quick Critic
Burn After Reading
µµµµ See it opening week
Farce leaves audience in stitches. Storyline so unbelievable, it's believable.
Ten Word Review:
 
 
Three Sentence Synopsis:
In Burn After Reading, Washington's covert power brokers and intellectuals are taken on by two gym workers, one of whom needs money to pay for extensive reworking of her physical appearance. As one misunderstanding piles onto another more and more characters are drawn into an escapade with moments so hilariously illogical that the audience is left in stitches. Meaningless acts and random occurrences begin to appear to be tied together, part of an ever more a more and more sinister plot, or at least that's how it appears.

George Clooney and Tilda Swinton round out the cast of characters central to the story. Clooney's impish grin and dark eyes charm one woman after another. Tilda Swinton's character is a power obsessed tiger not willing to let her husband (John Malkovich) drag her down.

All of the characters are tied together on many levels that are revealed to the audience early on but to each other as the movie progresses. The story is complicated and at the same time so simple that you just want somebody to stop and say "What the F#$* is going on here?" Of course, nobody does and the antics just keep getting more ridiculous and funnier until the audience is laughing so loud that it's nearly impossible to contemplate how it's going to get wrapped up without everyone falling out of their seats. People were crying (including me), they were laughing so hard.

The level of paranoia in this movie is truly a reflection of many American's obsession with personal security. The characters knee-jerk reactions occur before they ever have time to give thought to a better, more logical course of action. The bigger picture is social commentary on the way Washington has us believing that everyone is out to get us. Hmm, why'd they set the story in D.C.?

The movie takes on Washington and makes the warped things we hear about everyday seem far more normal than they should. And if there's a problem with this movie, it's that maybe we shouldn't find this funny. To hell with that! Just go see it and have fun.