Burn After Reading
By Marshall Fine
Rating:
Who's in it: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand
What's it about: Two fitness club employees (McDormand, Pitt) find a computer disc belonging to a CIA analyst (Malkovich) and try to blackmail him.
Coen comedy: When the Coens are on target, there's no one funnier in a twisted way. But this one falls into the "what were they thinking?" file - it's all pratfalls and funny faces, with very few actual jokes. Sure, it's a goof to see Brad Pitt as a bubble-headed personal trainer - but he and McDormand really have nothing to do in a movie with only a wisp of plot. The Coens apparently thought it would be a riot to have the laidback Malkovich screaming the F-word and parading around in his boxers; it's not. Clooney looks clueless as a womanizing government employee and Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton, as Malkovich's stern, faithless wife, is wasted as well. The funniest moment in the whole thing is an elaborate dirty joke that will offend as many women as it amuses. Otherwise, there's no "there" there.
Long story short: It's disappointingly laugh-deficient.
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