Burn After Reading

[Bunk]

Since someone brought it up in another thread. This may in fact be Brad Pitt's tour de force.

Basic Cohen's dark comedy. Great stuff from Pitt, Clooney and Malkovich. One of the few movies to actualy make me yell "What the fuck?" at the screen while watching it at home, alone.

[Nebu]

I just rented and watched this. 

The good: I agree that Pitt was outstanding. 

The bad: The movie left me pissed that I had just wasted 2h of my life. 

Even if you love the Cohen brothers, this may be a pass. 

[Miasma]

I liked it but the ending was very lacking.  That woman who won the oscar for Michael Clayton scares the fuck out of me, she's really good.

[Nerf]

I thought the ending was what made the whole movie.

[photek]

It was decent, a bit lacking compared to their other movies, guess it is me and my hate for the lead actress. The actors on the other hand.. Awesome. Pitt = 

EDIT : I probably have a mancrush on Brad Pitt ever since Fight Club / Snatch.

[Tannhauser]

Nothing in the previews make me want to see this.

[Ookii]

I thought the real standout was more Clooney than Pitt.

You want to see the movie because it's a Coen brothers movie, even though this isn't their best work it's still better than the majority of the stuff out there.

[Endie]

I agree with Ookii that Clooney was excellent.  Pitt phoned in a performance which was really one-paced.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed by the film: the Coen brothers used to release a film every two or three years and every single one would be golddust.  Now, they release one just about every year but the number of great movies has remained constant, meaning that every other one is amusing enough but simply not up to what you expect of them (The Ladykillers being another example).

The stand-out bits of the movie for me, apart from Pitt and Clooney's last interaction, were the two meetings with the CIA department head.  Those were hilarious.  But there was almost the feeling that you sat through the movie to get to them.

Malkovich was fun but was, ultimately, just Being John Malkovich yet again.  It was interesting to see Coen's wife being so unlikeable in contrast to her Fargo role, but then the Coen brothers increasingly do unlikeable characters.  Clooney in particular is getting the short end of the likeability stick these days from them, but he does it damn well.

[Xuri]

Some good acting from various actors - but... *scratches head* Hm. Well, I'll put it like this:

After the final scene of this movie had ended, both me and the three other people watching the movie with me stared at the screen for several minutes without saying anything. Then we collectively shook our heads, sighed and went home. We've never mentioned the movie to eachother again with another word (It should be said, though, that this happened about three days ago - so in this case "never" is only three-days old - but we'll get there eventually.)

[Tarami]

I thought it was great with some excellent acting. Especially Clooney, as mentioned. Just the level of farce that I can manage.

[HaemishM]

I thought it was great. From the trailers, I expected it to be a Ladykillers/Intolerable Cruelty style Coen Brothers movie, good but not great. The performances really put this one over the top for me, but especially Pitt and Clooney. Pitt was so letter perfect with that characterization, especially when he's dancing to the Ipod while sitting in the car. Just hysterical.

It was a deconstructed farce on movies like Enemy of the State. I loved it.

[voodoolily]

As one friend of mine put it, "the chair" was one of the 10 Best of 2008. Great film. Saw it in BC when the Hubz and I were sick of walking around all day.

[Abagadro]

It was a deconstructed farce on movies like Enemy of the State.

You could tell that just by the title sequence. Also Spy Game, etc.

It's also a significant satire of the run-up to the Iraq war if you want to really burrow down into it.