Merged: The Movies Thread [Archive] - Page 38 - Commanders Post at The Warpath

mredskins

09-12-2008, 02:30 PM

Anyone going to check this one out?

Burn After Reading | Movie Review | Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20224739,00.html?iid=top25-20080911-Movie+Review%3A+Burn+After+Reading)

BDK Review:

Another Coen Brothers classic. The point of Burn After Reading is that there is no point and that is the entire point. Are you completely confused? To use an oxy-moron, this was officially the dumbest-smart film I have ever seen. The Coen Brothers are back with a film that I think was more entertaining than No Country For Old Men and had an ending that actually made sense (after seeing the film multiple times I understand it but they could have done without it and just left out Tommy Lee Jones' character completely). I will say right off the bat that Burn After Reading is not a movie for everybody. This is the type of film that people will walk out of, pissed off and wondering what they just paid for. If you do that, then you obviously didn't the point of the film. Remember, there is NO POINT. That is the whole joke and it is extremely smart and well written. The Coen Brothers brought back their awkwardly weird dark humor which always works. To this day, I still stand by Blood Simple being their best film. It was their first film and it was just great to see two independent filmmakers at the birth of their genius. These guys don't make bad films and if you haven't seen Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski or Miller's Crossing, then I have no idea what you are doing.

Now, I know what you are saying. Are the Coen Brothers trying to prove that they are smarter than us and that only smart people can get this type of a film? Not at all! I am not that smart, as you can tell by my writing skills. It is just a different style of comedy and doesn't follow the norm. If you want a perfect example of dark comedy, think of the scene in Pulp Fiction where Marvin gets shot in the face by John Travolta's character. I was laughing so hard when that happened. Is it funny that he was shot? Not really. It is funny because of how the scene is directed and acted. This new Coen Brothers adventure follows that style of comedy exactly and almost to the T if you catch my drift. Burn After Reading stars George Clooney (Out of Sight, O Brother Where Art Thou?), John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich, Con-Air), Brad Pitt (True Romance, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe), Francis McDormand (Blood Simple, Fargo) and Richard Jenkins (The Visitor).

The plot line to this film will sound retarded. I will admit that. Essentially, the movie opens and we meet Osborne Cox (Malkovich) and he quits his job at the CIA after being demoted to a lower security level. His wife Katie (Swinton) wants to leave him for a guy named Harry (Clooney) who works for the Department of Treasury. He wants to leave his wife as well. Essentially, everyone is sleeping with everyone in this film. Because Katie wants to leave him, she gets advice from a lawyer that she should take control of his Osborne's finances so that she doesn't walk away broke. She burns a C.D. of what she thinks is his financial files, but happens to just be a MEM-WAA (memoir) that he is writing. To make a long story short, the C.D. ends up being lost at a gym called Hardbodies, where Linda Litzkie (McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Pitt) work. Chad and Linda are two of the dumbest people on the planet and they try to bribe Osborne by asking for money for the disc. I don't want to give too much away but all of the characters are connected in someway and let the stupidity begin. The fact that the movie is just completely dumb is the whole JOKE of the film. What makes this apparent is all of the dialogue that happens between the characters played by JK SIMMONS and DAVID RASHE. That is all I will say.

Overall, the flick is definitely original, nutty, smart and just completely out there. If that is your cup of tea, and it is mine, then you will really enjoy this. Like I said, I think the jokes in the movie will go over a lot of people's heads.

Malkovich stood out the most for me out of all of the actors. Maybe it was the fact that he used an "F" word every five seconds but his mannerisms and facial expressions were so chaotic that you just feel his pain as to how stupid these other characters really are.

Brad Pitt gives one hell of a dumb performance, which kind of reminded of the outlandish performance we received from Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. It was a completely different character but I am just comparing the fact that they were so out of their norm. See, the thing that makes Brad Pitt such an amazing actor is the wide variety of the roles he takes. The guy can seriously play anything. He really showed that in this film as well as a little flick called Snatch. He is one of the few actors that is in the news so much but doesn't let that affect him. He really knows how to take his job seriously and it is obvious that he takes all his characters seriously, even if he is playing a DUMB trainer in a gym.

McDormand is to the Coen Brothers what Diane Keaton was to Woody Allen. My roommate pointed out that film had a lot of similarities to Fargo and I couldn't agree more. McDormand's character was just as quirky as her character from Fargo except she didn't have that crazy accent. As always, she pulls off her best quirky role.

For a movie that is so all over the place, it is so well written that the Coen Brothers somehow keep it together and make sure that everything is tied perfectly together. What is funny is that none of it matters because it is all so ridiculous. The movie is DUMB-GENIUS, if that makes sense. I would literally sit there during the movie and say, how the hell did they come up with this? It just seemed so out there but it worked. The flick is a perfect example of a mess that doesn't need to be cleaned up.

THE KEY TO THE MOVIE and I WON'T GIVE ANYTHING AWAY is the end. The last scene really seals the entire film, no pun intended. You will see why. Don't leave before that. I give this film a 4.5 BDK rating because it was great to see more originality this year and it's a movie that was so smart that it was dumb.

(I am having trouble really figuring out why I liked this movie so much. There was just so much going on)


	Commanders Post at The Warpath > Off-Topic Discussion > Parking Lot > Merged: The Movies Thread PDA Merged: The Movies Thread Pages : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [38] 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 DynamiteRave 08-29-2008, 09:49 PM Friend of mine gave me a movie link where you can watch whole movies online. I haven't tried it out yet nor checked out the quality of the movies.. But you guys can give it a shot. Tell me how it works out for you. (Granted, I dunno how legal this is!:)) Watch Movies Online For Free Full Movie Downloads (http://www.watch-movies.net) BleedBurgundy 09-01-2008, 12:59 PM My wife just rented "In the Name of the King" from Blockbuster. (we pay $15 a month or whatever and get unlimited rentals) What a steamy pile of shit that movie was. It was bad enough that I had to research the director, Uwe Boll. Apparently this clown is the worst director/producer of all time. I've officially given up on any hope that Jason Statham can star in a decent movie. I don't know what's worse: The fact that they failed horribly in attempting to rip off LOTR at every point, or the fact that they attempted to rip off Eragon (another steaming pile) as well...:rant: MTK 09-11-2008, 11:55 AM Anyone going to check this one out? Burn After Reading \| Movie Review \| Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20224739,00.html?iid=top25-20080911-Movie+Review%3A+Burn+After+Reading) mredskins 09-11-2008, 01:49 PM Anyone going to check this one out? Burn After Reading \| Movie Review \| Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20224739,00.html?iid=top25-20080911-Movie+Review%3A+Burn+After+Reading) Probably not. This is the slow time of the year for Hollywood, Iam waiting for the holiday movies. I did see Tropic thunder it was awesome. Action and comdey all in one! mredskins 09-12-2008, 02:30 PM Anyone going to check this one out? Burn After Reading \| Movie Review \| Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20224739,00.html?iid=top25-20080911-Movie+Review%3A+Burn+After+Reading) BDK Review: Another Coen Brothers classic. The point of Burn After Reading is that there is no point and that is the entire point. Are you completely confused? To use an oxy-moron, this was officially the dumbest-smart film I have ever seen. The Coen Brothers are back with a film that I think was more entertaining than No Country For Old Men and had an ending that actually made sense (after seeing the film multiple times I understand it but they could have done without it and just left out Tommy Lee Jones' character completely). I will say right off the bat that Burn After Reading is not a movie for everybody. This is the type of film that people will walk out of, pissed off and wondering what they just paid for. If you do that, then you obviously didn't the point of the film. Remember, there is NO POINT. That is the whole joke and it is extremely smart and well written. The Coen Brothers brought back their awkwardly weird dark humor which always works. To this day, I still stand by Blood Simple being their best film. It was their first film and it was just great to see two independent filmmakers at the birth of their genius. These guys don't make bad films and if you haven't seen Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski or Miller's Crossing, then I have no idea what you are doing. Now, I know what you are saying. Are the Coen Brothers trying to prove that they are smarter than us and that only smart people can get this type of a film? Not at all! I am not that smart, as you can tell by my writing skills. It is just a different style of comedy and doesn't follow the norm. If you want a perfect example of dark comedy, think of the scene in Pulp Fiction where Marvin gets shot in the face by John Travolta's character. I was laughing so hard when that happened. Is it funny that he was shot? Not really. It is funny because of how the scene is directed and acted. This new Coen Brothers adventure follows that style of comedy exactly and almost to the T if you catch my drift. Burn After Reading stars George Clooney (Out of Sight, O Brother Where Art Thou?), John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich, Con-Air), Brad Pitt (True Romance, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe), Francis McDormand (Blood Simple, Fargo) and Richard Jenkins (The Visitor). The plot line to this film will sound retarded. I will admit that. Essentially, the movie opens and we meet Osborne Cox (Malkovich) and he quits his job at the CIA after being demoted to a lower security level. His wife Katie (Swinton) wants to leave him for a guy named Harry (Clooney) who works for the Department of Treasury. He wants to leave his wife as well. Essentially, everyone is sleeping with everyone in this film. Because Katie wants to leave him, she gets advice from a lawyer that she should take control of his Osborne's finances so that she doesn't walk away broke. She burns a C.D. of what she thinks is his financial files, but happens to just be a MEM-WAA (memoir) that he is writing. To make a long story short, the C.D. ends up being lost at a gym called Hardbodies, where Linda Litzkie (McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Pitt) work. Chad and Linda are two of the dumbest people on the planet and they try to bribe Osborne by asking for money for the disc. I don't want to give too much away but all of the characters are connected in someway and let the stupidity begin. The fact that the movie is just completely dumb is the whole JOKE of the film. What makes this apparent is all of the dialogue that happens between the characters played by JK SIMMONS and DAVID RASHE. That is all I will say. Overall, the flick is definitely original, nutty, smart and just completely out there. If that is your cup of tea, and it is mine, then you will really enjoy this. Like I said, I think the jokes in the movie will go over a lot of people's heads. Malkovich stood out the most for me out of all of the actors. Maybe it was the fact that he used an "F" word every five seconds but his mannerisms and facial expressions were so chaotic that you just feel his pain as to how stupid these other characters really are. Brad Pitt gives one hell of a dumb performance, which kind of reminded of the outlandish performance we received from Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. It was a completely different character but I am just comparing the fact that they were so out of their norm. See, the thing that makes Brad Pitt such an amazing actor is the wide variety of the roles he takes. The guy can seriously play anything. He really showed that in this film as well as a little flick called Snatch. He is one of the few actors that is in the news so much but doesn't let that affect him. He really knows how to take his job seriously and it is obvious that he takes all his characters seriously, even if he is playing a DUMB trainer in a gym. McDormand is to the Coen Brothers what Diane Keaton was to Woody Allen. My roommate pointed out that film had a lot of similarities to Fargo and I couldn't agree more. McDormand's character was just as quirky as her character from Fargo except she didn't have that crazy accent. As always, she pulls off her best quirky role. For a movie that is so all over the place, it is so well written that the Coen Brothers somehow keep it together and make sure that everything is tied perfectly together. What is funny is that none of it matters because it is all so ridiculous. The movie is DUMB-GENIUS, if that makes sense. I would literally sit there during the movie and say, how the hell did they come up with this? It just seemed so out there but it worked. The flick is a perfect example of a mess that doesn't need to be cleaned up. THE KEY TO THE MOVIE and I WON'T GIVE ANYTHING AWAY is the end. The last scene really seals the entire film, no pun intended. You will see why. Don't leave before that. I give this film a 4.5 BDK rating because it was great to see more originality this year and it's a movie that was so smart that it was dumb. (I am having trouble really figuring out why I liked this movie so much. There was just so much going on) itvnetop 09-12-2008, 04:47 PM I'm a Coen bros.' fanboy... this flick looks hilarious. johnerotten 09-18-2008, 06:06 PM watched a workprint screener of death race yesterday.not a bad flick,but plenty of flying body parts.dark knight & the hulk are great too,and get smart. 724Skinsfan 09-19-2008, 08:01 PM Okay, pick my movie for tonight: Street Kings or The Bank Job skinsfanthru&thru 09-19-2008, 08:05 PM Okay, pick my movie for tonight: Street Kings or The Bank Job they are both worth a rental but I'd go with the Bank Job first. Street Kings had flashes of what made Training Day so good, but at times fizzled. BleedBurgundy 09-21-2008, 06:16 PM they are both worth a rental but I'd go with the Bank Job first. Street Kings had flashes of what made Training Day so good, but at times fizzled. Street Kings. Stay away from any movie starring Jason Statham, unless it's "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" or "Snatch."