Burn After Reading

I am not sure what I just watched. I take it back, I just watched a movie by Joel and Ethan Coen. Burn After Reading is a bit much, even for them.





These two nut jobs have had some real winners. No Country for Old Men being the biggest winner of them all. Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, they all have their place. They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I haven't found too many people who truly HATE their movies.

I don't hate this one, but it just felt a little bit too much like they were trying to stick it in our faces. It felt like they were saying, hey..we won our Oscar, now take this!

The movie certainly had an A list cast, and they look like they had fun and thus put their hearts into it. It was well acted all around. George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and Richard Jenkins each outdid each other. McDormand played the lost, aloof character flawlessly. Swinton was fabulous as the bitch. No other way to put it.

This is certainly worth the watch, but I think it will be polarizing. Perhaps you dig the style, or perhaps you find it a bit too much. I would love to hear your thoughts.

The Blu-Ray format shined here. I felt like I was in the room with these folks. In fact, perhaps it was too good. I could see every pore on their face. That's not hot.

The DTS-HD Master Audio was just an average showing. Since it's mostly dialogue driven I wouldn't expect much more.

3 stars.