Weekly Movie Review: Burn After Reading
OSBOURNE COX….IS THIS OSBOURNE COX??? If you haven’t seen this movie yet, your life is not complete. By far, this is one of the Coen brother’s greatest ventures thus far, and it stands as one of the better comedies out this year. Sure, Stepbrothers, Pineapple Express, and Tropic Thunder were all good, but this movie demands something that these movies all lacked: a brain. Smart, sharp and witty humor are what keep this movie alive, and it is chock full of it. Meet Osbourne Cox, a CIA analyst who quits his job and decides to write a memoir over his experiences with the CIA. His wife (Tilda Swinton) is a “stuck up bitch”, who is cheating on him with Harry (George Clooney), a Treasurey agent who’s never fired his gun. Eventually, this memoir falls into the hands of Chad and Linda, two blatantly dim employees of Hardbodies, a fitness gym. The moronic Chad (Brad Pitt) believes that this memoir is “raw intelligence”, that can be used as blackmail against Osbourne if he doesn’t pay what Chad demands. Linda (Frances McDormand) becomes involved because she needs money for the numerous plastic surgeries she wants, none of which are covered by her insurance. Chad and Linda are so misguided that at one point they go to a Russian embassy, in the hopes that the Russians will be interested in this mindless memoir. And finally, J.K. Simmons plays the CIA supervisor who Osbourne’s old boss reports to. All of the scenes featuring Simmons are absolutely hilarious, but Pitt demands the audience’s attention in every one of his scenes. His hair is ridiculous, he acts like a mindless fifth-grader/jock, and he gets in way over his head in his so called “plot”. Pitt’s scenes are by far the best, due to his superb silliness on screen. The movie is zany, intelligent, and dark, all of which combine to make an experience unmatched by any other comedy this year. Movie rated R for language and violence. My rating: 9/10
