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Burn After Reading
2008
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78 %
Certified Fresh
$ 163 Million
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Burn After Reading
Positive Reviews
133
Negative reviews
33
Average Rating
3.4
/5
nouvelle
hilarious
comedic
impressive
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Positive
Negative
2.5
Once more in Burn After Reading goof around, in their arch, bemused way, with conventions of genre a little screwball here, some spy spoof there.
EW
3.8
The boss doesnt have much dialogue, but every line is a punch line.
Rogerebert
4.0
It doesnt push the envelope far enough at least for a Coen brothers movie.
Common Sense Media
3.3
Its possibly the Coens least romantic film, which makes the cynical tone a tough pill to swallow, but chances are that youll be too busy hooting and c ..
Time Out
3.1
Which isnt to say that we dont form a relationship with these creatures.
1.5
The high octane cast works hard. But theres nothing to suggest anybody off camera tried that hard, which is fatal to a Coen outing.
4.5
A smart urban screwball comedy about the perils of idiocy that uses its all star cast to dazzling and often hilarious effect.
Screen Daily
4.5
Production: Focus Features, StudioCanal, Relativity Media, Working Title.
The Hollywood Reporter
3.0
The Coen brothers may be masters of black comedy, but there are times when theres no point in taking them seriously.
2.0
You cant blame the actors, even though their energetic performances dont harmonize very well.
Paste Magazine
3.1
It took a second viewing of the aforementioned Before Sunrise to grasp it as a beautiful romance instead of a pretentious hipster talkfest.
E Film Critic
5.0
A beautifully inhuman spy farce in which nobody amounts to anything more than their loopy desires.
E Film Critic
5.0
In the end. Burn After Reading is a film that is essentially about nothing much at all but it goes about achieving that nothing in such audaciously fu ..
E Film Critic
3.8
In the end, the movie doesnt add up to much, but its fast and funny and lets a bunch of top drawer actors exercise their comic muscles.
San Francisco Chronicle
4.0
If No Country For Old Men was vintage port, Burn After Reading is a shot of tequila: eye watering and hard to swallow, but the after effect is terrifi ..
3.0
Its an entire movie full of Walters, and as much as I love Sobchak hes just not as compelling without The Dude there takin er easy for all us sinners.
Cinema Blend
2.0
It has its moments, but is all too easy to erase from your memory.
Ny Daily News
3.5
All in all though, fun times. I look forward to revisiting it again in the future, like most Coen bros movies.
JoBlo
3.8
A goofy screwball romp that affords a gaggle of A listers the chance to hambone around in antic style.
Philly
4.0
A clever black comedy that pokes fun at some of the obsessions of our frantic times including surveillance, cosmetic surgery, and physical fitness.
Spirituality And Practice
3.5
Isnt much more than an extravagantly complicated joke, its a pretty funny one, with plenty of those mordantly humorous jolts the are so good at.
One Guys Opinion
0.5
A characteristically supercilious and crisply shot clown show filled with cartoon perfs and predicated on extravagant stupidity.
Village Voice
4.2
Goofy fluff spy comedy that revolves around a missing CIA memoir.
Sover
3.8
The tone is a little like Fargo, although Burn After Reading isnt as nuanced.
ReelViews
5.0
DVD Details: Universals DVD is pretty bare bones, but I dont care since this is one of my favorite movies of 2008.
Combust Ible Celluloid
3.5
Harry, who loves sex (as often as possible), and doesnt want Kates encumbrance and, instead, goes online and meets Linda, who is looking for a serious ..
3.8
The brisk pace and sharp humor in Burn After Reading is a welcome relief after weeks of witless comedies and overblown action flicks.
Usa Today
3.1
The propulsive narrative culminates with a predictably upbeat yet undeniably enthralling finale, and its ultimately hard to envision a more entertaini ..
Reel Film Reviews
2.8
I dont think it is particularly dark, except for the axe murder, of course.
Lariat
3.2
Quibbles aside, a lesser Coen movie is like a lesser Pixar movie: still better than most of its competition.
Eric Ds Nider
3.0
Or as a spectacular critical rebuke, to a document so aggressively disposable that the disposal itself should be aggressive, punitive, scorching.
News Review
3.5
At one point, Malkovich calls them the league of morons, thinking hes somehow smarter than everyone else.
Shadows On The Wall
4.0
An enjoyable Coen Brothers comedy with strong comic performances throughout, though its more Intolerable Cruelty than The Big Lebowski.
View London
3.8
Doesnt stand up to Fargo or Blood Simple, but its a chance to watch some top notch actors jump their rails and head into terra bizarro.
News Day
1.5
Big stars act like darn fools in this broad black comedy, a lesser effort from the Coen Brothers.
Film Journal International ..
3.1
You have to hand it to the Coen brothers. Even their cinematic failures are pretty interesting.
Deseret News (Salt Lake Ci ..
3.8
Burn After Reading bursts with wonderfully wacky intrigue. The films dramatic music punctuates the story line with a goofy gusto.
Internet Reviews
3.0
Mostly were along for a curious ride. Individual scenes are enjoyable, some laugh out loud funny. But its not a story being told, really, so much as a ..
Az Central
2.5
Clooney, meanwhile, acts with his throat; his character isnt sure what foods hes allergic to and keeps teetering phlegmily on the verge of anaphylacti ..
Boston
5.0
The whole thing is a triumphant exercise in the art of silliness for its own sake.
Smh
4.5
Its not clear whether hes actually that much smarter than anyone else in the film, but hes at least bright enough to know everyone is ultimately incom ..
Mountain X
4.5
Burn After Reading is about people very very stupid people doing very very stupid things, as performed by very very smart people being very very cleve ..
3.8
Osborne drowns his sorrows in scotch and with a payback memoir hes penning about his CIA days.
Toronto Star
3.5
Known for assigning their protags original goofball names, with double entendre meanings, the Coens dont disappoint here.
Emanuellevy
2.0
Playing the knuckle headed fitness freak Chad, Brad Pitt is at least unfamiliar.
Guardian
4.5
Burn After Reading isnt a perfect film by any means, for it has a bit too much to say about too many disparate topics.
Reel Talk Reviews
1.5
SPOILER ALERT Harry doesnt suspect that Sandy, too, plans divorce, maybe for her Seattle book tour lover (Patrick Boll), for he is too busy jogging, t ..
Reel Talk Reviews
4.5
Even as we respond, however, theres the nagging suspicion were being tricked into laughing at our own idiocy. (
Reel Talk Reviews
3.0
It constantly teeters on the brink of falling apart, but its held together by the sheer will of its talented cast, all of whom seem to relish the oppo ..
Q Network
4.0
Cleverly plotted and brilliantly acted, this is up there with Fargo and Raising Arizona as the Coens finest comedic work.
Daily Mail
1.5
For those who like their black comedy without a trace of cream or sugar, Burn holds up as a minor Coen brothers comedy, a Hudsucker Proxy rather than ..
Slate
4.5
Why on earth would anyone think thats worth anything, as Katie puts it with characteristic directness.
Eye For Film
4.5
But thats the point, and the juxtaposition of drama and black comedy makes this an exhilarating ride.
2.0
Coen Brothers Movies To Watch Instead: Raising Arizona, Fargo, Blood Simple Things I Thought About When The Movie Wasnt Doing It For Me.
Movies
4.5
A roller coaster of emotions that will have you laughing one moment and gasping in shock the next.
Flim Threet
1.5
At the same time, hes a neurotic plagued by obscure fears and little tics.
New Yorker
0.5
Burn After Reading is a movie about stupidity that left me feeling stupid.
Time
3.8
A darkly satiric sendup of the bumblers, incompetents and idiots living in and around Langley, Va.
Boston Herald
4.0
George Clooney (2008s Leatherheads ) is having a blast as Harry, a man who doesnt understand the meaning of monogamy and doesnt care to learn it.
The Movie Boy
3.0
Burn does a lot for a lark, but a lark it is nonetheless, and perfectly welcome as long as the Coens bring back their ambition next time around.
Las Vegas Weekly
3.0
Loose limbed and absent minded, his hyper performance stays the right side of mannered.
Total Film
4.0
Joel and Ethan Coen have such a distinctive creative palette that there ought to be a paint color named after them.
Calendar Live
3.5
The Coens know how to write about dumb people, and everybodys dumb!. This...lets you come out of it no wiser, but probably in better spirits than when ..
Tony Medley
3.8
Its a deliciously venal throwaway, and while the film does attempt to make some pointed comments about the declining mental acumen of American society ..
Movie Freak
3.8
Burn After Readings sour candy is redeemed by its humor and its clever construction, harkening back to the relatively optimistic crime comedy Fargo.
Groucho Reviews
3.5
Its not the best film in the Coen Brothers library, but like almost any one of their films, its better than most movies out there.
7M Pictures
3.8
Chad, an exuberantly dumb fitness freak with one of cinemas worst hairdos, is an enormous, unintentionally destructive puppy.
Oregon Live
3.5
Out of boredom or a need to unbalance their audiences, the Coens follow up is a bumbler, its first half as aimless as a drunk spider making threads wi ..
Boxoffice Magazine
3.8
A twisted spy farce populated with characters that might as well be windup toys, Burn After Reading is nevertheless a hoot mostly thanks to the all st ..
E Online
4.5
Burn After Reading isnt cold or distant its a game, and a good one at that.
Film Ink
4.0
This certainly isnt a major Coen picture such as No Country, Millers Crossing or Fargo.
Mirror
3.5
The writing of his part doesnt help, nor does the spiky bleached hair.
Varia Gate
4.0
At times this noir is a little too nutty and we dont have a character to laugh with as much as laugh at, so it doesnt have the same bountiful charm as ..
Digital Spy
4.4
A deliriously funny and delightful comedy, another exceptional movie from a creative team that seems boundlessly skilled and imaginative no matter the ..
Christianity Today
4.5
The Coen Brothers go undercover creatively for this playful spy comedy, twisting colliding plot schemes and lines alike while juggling online stranger ..
News Blaze
5.0
Alternatively mirthful and macabre, while poking fun at both modern mating habits and the paranoia of espionage culture, this sophisticated social sat ..
News Blaze
3.1
And I enjoy the Coen brothers wry sense of humor, quirky story lines and odd awkward dialogue.
Ross Anthony
5.0
Well, The Sneak learned that the Coen brothers can transform Pitt and Clooney into two of the funniest actors around and what just happened was the be ..
The Sun
5.0
an impishly smart film about the stupidity rampant in people who think they are being clever
Killer Movie Reviews
4.2
Scripting themselves a cats cradle of a story that vigorously lampoons zigzagging espionage cinema, the Coens arent chasing anarchy with Burn, but an ..
Brian Or Ndorf
5.0
Easily the funniest film by Joel and Ethan Coen since The Big Lebowski...feels more like their old stuff than anything else theyve done in a decade.
Antagony & Ecstasy
4.4
The joy of a Coen Brothers film is that it IS confusing, yet somehow always remains coherent.
1.3
I want to say Burn After Reading has trouble getting going, but it NEVER gets going
Waffle Movies
1.3
Its an Oscar Bait trick; if a film full of good actors doesnt make any sense, it must be brilliant since nobody other than the filmmakers can figure o ..
Movie Crypt
4.5
Burn After Reading is a blackly comic illustration of Murphys Law, set in the Washington world of CIA espionage, and populated with a cast of delusion ..
News Week
3.0
Burn After Reading is a clown mobile; a comical death trap constructed from lots of disposable parts.
Sky
4.0
Indeed, the spies and thrills dont add up at all. The plot is a total mistake. The characters are madly absurd. The film shouldnt work, but it does.
Entertainment Times Online ..
4.0
Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen could direct a movie like Burn After Reading in their sleep, and I dont mean that as a slight.
Window To The Movies
4.4
Ozzie doesnt fancy being blackmailed, but Linda looking for a payday to cover breast work, lipo, facial tuck and rhinoplasty wont give up.
Chron
4.0
But factor in a cavalcade of hilarious and beautifully nuanced performances particularly from Richard Jenkins and the ever reliable McDormand and youv ..
The Shiz Nit
4.0
Deceptively dark for all its lightness, Coen haters will be infuriated by a stylish conceit that perversely sets out not to amount to a hill of beans.
Metro
3.8
Humphrey Bogart famously said in Casablanca that it doesnt take much to see that the problems of three little people dont amount to a hill of beans in ..
Scene Stealers
1.5
Yet its Burn After Readings contempt for its characters that irritates me most.
What So
3.5
This is rather trivial territory for the Coens and the cast, but everyone involved is clearly having a good time.
Bowling Green Daily News
2.8
As with many Coen films, theres also an element that doesnt seem to fit in anywhere, in this case Harrys lewdly bizarre workshop project, a twisted hi ..
Decent Films
4.5
It might be the same old song, but I could watch these guys play it over and over again.
Streaming Quickflix
1.5
On the other hand, Tilda Swinton, as Osbornes acidic wife, doesnt look like shes enjoying life at all.
Wsj
3.5
As a chance to watch a gaggle of Serious Actors ham it up in an intricately plotted (though easy to follow) yarn, its a well executed diversion.
Guide Live
4.5
After the portentous No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen return to their trademark brand of cruel, misanthropic farce, and for dark laughs and ..
Chicago Reader
1.5
Coxs premature retirement doesnt sit well with his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton, even icier than usual).
East Bay Express
1.5
Burn After Reading is a fitful, lurching would be comedy about espionage.
Tony Mack
3.5
His fitness instructor Chad Feldheimer is one of the films more innocent characters, a supremely self confident idiot who never quite figures out how ..
Flip Side Archive
2.0
Halfway between a good Coen brothers movie and a terrible Coen brothers movie.
Film4
1.5
Cheshire doesnt dwell too much on their (muted) resentment at having no stake in the land their ancestors worked.
Ny Mag
4.5
This supposed sages entire career in the capital amounts to: No biggie.
National Review
3.5
Had this screwball comedy been made in the 1930s, it might have starred the Marx Brothers, as each character is a comedic one up of the next. The Coen ..
Review Express
4.5
The cast couldnt be better. Clooney and Pitt are A list morons, Malkovich is volcanically abusive, and Swinton, stiff with beady eyed suspicion, is a ..
M Tv
5.0
Ethan and Joel Coen are masters of exaggeration. Their films define the term and are done with cunning and cleverness not possessed by mere mortal fil ..
Tri City Herald
3.8
This is the sort of thing the Coens do best: mixing sweet and sour to twist your emotions on a dime.
Aisle Seat
3.8
The surface foolishness of the Coens latest feels like a carefully designed bit of misdirection aimed at masking another tale of lonely, aimless peopl ..
Nicks Chager
3.5
Malkovich plus Pitt is perfection. In fact, I wish the film could have focused on just the two of them.
The Scorecard Review
1.5
The overall tone I like the filmmakers saying, Yeah, we did that. That just happened. You saw it. Its stupid but we dont care. They just keep letting ..
Can Mag
1.5
While the end of Burn After Reading dribbles away, we realize that we dont care very much about the characters and their futures.
Vulture
3.5
After the darkness of No Country for Old Men, the Coen Bros. eased up with a deadpan espionage farce played out by small fish convinced that they are ..
Stream On Demand At Home
1.5
George, I would say, a comedy performance doesnt just mean acting funny.
Spectator
2.5
A thoroughly disposable comic romp made by a bunch of people who probably should have been working on bigger and better things, Burn After Reading is ..
Detroit News
4.0
Theres no Country in the Coens latest, but plenty of great comedy.
Movies Ign
3.8
In fact, the characters themselves dont even understand most of it.
The Dispatch (Lexington, N ..
1.5
And that seems to be the films point to reflect a society so obsessed with banal ideas of beauty and so interested in fulfilling desires for status an ..
World Wng
3.2
The reason this film gets a slightly above average grade is the strength of Brad Pitts silliness and the momentum the movie has near the end.
Film.com
1.5
The film unspools minus ominous overtones: crimes of passion need edge, and Maharathi doesnt have any.
The Indian Express
5.0
Its a Chinese box bazaar in here: A 5th century pastoral drama imagined by 17th century performers and finally presented by a Nouvelle Vague master in ..
Cine Passion
3.8
The writing/directing team of Joel and Ethan Coen create a laugh a minute black comedy that pokes fun at Americas surveillance dominated existence, pl ..
Film Critic 1963 Typepad
3.5
Considering the impressive ensemble, its too bad Burn ends up perfectly good but never truly great.
Metromix.com
3.2
A mixed bag of tricks that sometimes works, and sometimes doesnt.
Week In Rewind
5.0
...a comedy classic that can stand with Raising Arizona, Fargo and The Big Lebowski as memorable.
Crazed Fan Boy
4.5
... a fun ride down the roller coaster of the dark side of human nature as only the Coens can explore it.
Cinematical
1.5
That doesnt mean it isnt a good time, though but thats assuming you like talented actors mugging and hamming their way through scenes, and chewing up ..
Esquire
3.5
Another Coens twisty, genre tweaking movie filled with deadpan delivery by characters who are venal, dumb, or both, plus some shockingly grisly violen ..
Movie Mom
1.0
Intended as a pastiche of those grim Washington paranoia movies, its almost as if that strived for drabness drains the film of any real intent. Its pa ..
Patrick Nabarro
3.8
Maestros of time and place, the Coen brothers orchestra a convergence of incompetence, bad decisions and all around silliness.
2 The Advocate
3.1
Burn may be inspired by eight years of Washington iniquity, but it hardly represents a departure from the typically curdled worldview of the Coens.
Gomemphis
4.0
A stellar cast and the usual percolating plot of the Coens combine in one of their most entertaining crime comedies to date. Funny stuff with Clooney, ..
Monsters And Critics
3.1
Screwball fare is meant to be lightweight, but this is just empty. In the end, Burn After Reading doesnt add up so much as go up in a puff of thin smo ..
Globe and Mail
4.0
Burn After Reading, played for laughs by two directors clearly in prankish moods and never above inflicting their sadism on audiences, is the flipside ..
Brandon Fibbs
4.4
Seldom has a comedy about such thoroughly dumb individuals been so engaging, or so insightful.
Cinema Phile 2010 Blog Spo ..
4.3
Worth viewing if only to see Clooney, McDormand, and Pitt all play what Malkovichs character refers to as a league of morons.
Supercala.com
4.5
Another Coen Brothers classic. The point of Burn After Reading is that there is no point and that is the entire point.
0.5
This isnt the Coens playing it safe following their Oscar win. Rather, Burn After Reading is a movie about idiots made by geniuses.
Rotten Tomatoes
2.0
ne gets the impression that with just a few cuts, the film could be a gut busting laugh riot or a taut bit of suspense. What actually wound up on scre ..
MSNBC
4.8
Burn After Reading is the new Coen Bros classic that youll be quoting ad nauseum for the next decade.
Chud
1.5
With minimum human vitality in the functionally anonymous mise en scne, the Coens meticulous, and eventually impressively calibrated craft drives more ..
Mubi
3.8
A cruelly, insanely hilarious comedy populated with imbeciles whose appetites lead to giant helpings of Just Desserts.
Seattle Times
3.8
Burn After Reading is typical Coen brothers, but Brad Pitts appearance is anything but expected.
Washington Times
3.8
A pleasant return to the silliness of the Coens earlier pictures from the stiltedness of their latter day offerings (No Country excepted).
Imdb
4.4
Skip descriptions of the plot, reject self righteous denunciations of smart skepticism and charming evil, go and wallow in life affirming laughter.
3.5
Take a crazy pill or two and let Burn After Reading entertain for a few hours...
Newshub (NZ)
4.5
Black and snappy, the Coen brothers latest nihilistic wonder is an overt comedy about covert ops ...
Ar Kansas Online
4.5
But that doesnt mean that this version of The Women , an amalgamation of The Stepford Wives , The First Wives Club and a sort of middle aged Sex and t ..
Knight At The Movies
3.8
But theres something that felt a little less than organic about Burn After Reading.
Sea Coast Online
3.5
Even if the story behind Burn After Reading wasnt all that impressive, Im sure the film would still stick in your mind because of the performances fro ..
Wd Times
1.0
As well as having a hopelessly complex plot thats ultimately unimportant.
World Film About
4.5
For fans of the Coens... it suggests, especially on the heels of No Country for Old Men, that they have rediscovered their cinematic vision after seve ..
Tnr
3.5
a quirky, delicious comedy with an A list cast clearly enjoying every moment of their screen time
Screen Wize
4.0
If youre into the Coens brand of sardonic humor showcased in the likes of Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou and The Hudsucker Proxy then this should be ..
Reelz Channel
1.5
Its funny that hes watching Family Feud, less so when hes staring bleakly out the window at a grey street, oppressed by free time.
Stop Smiling Online
1.9
Here, the brothers weave an elaborate, misanthropic web of desperation and betrayal around a group of characters so jaded they take no real pleasure f ..
Rossiter Drake
4.5
Burn After Reading may not have the sparse majesty of No Country...but in its own way its an even more brutal assignation of moral confusion.
Blog Spout
1.5
What Burn After Reading offers is hollow, not especially insightful comedy about self involved people whose ugly ambitions intersect and then end in b ..
Charleston City Paper
4.0
Sure Burn After Reading is disjointed, fragmented and frustrated. But thats the point.
What Culture
4.5
The Coens are having none of it. The dopes we encounter every day are the real dopes, the creeps are the real creeps, the people in and around power w ..
3.0
Its not for everyone, or funny all the time, but its worth it for the performances, the cast, the cinematography and of course the complicated and eve ..
3.5
Burn After Reading is a welcome escape from Septembers usual crop of inane thrillers starring Nicolas Cage or Julianne Moore.
Peterborough This Week
4.5
The great strength of the Coen brothers is their scripts, and Burn After Reading is not only one of their most skilfully plotted films, its also one o ..
The Australian
3.8
Nothing in the movie makes sense at all, but thats not necessarily a drawback.
4.3
Whats worse Victimization by Washingtons intel Or victimization by a total lack of ones own This is some clever comedy, where casual murder and serial ..
Kimberly Gadette
3.0
A quirky tale of lust, greed, vanity, idiocy and ineptitude that spreads its giggly ripples through the bureaucratic buildings and leafy suburbs of Wa ..
American Profile
4.5
, Frances McDormand might get nominated for an Academy Award in a supporting role. She was great.
2.5
The Coen Brothers should stop collaborating on comedies with George Clooney. None has worked, and none less so than this leaden spy game. At least Bra ..
4.0
The cast is spot on, the comedy schtick is classic stuff and the who thing plays out like the ultimate exercise in exactly how to make a great movie.
See Where to Watch
Burn After Reading