Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton

Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen

Just saw the movie “Burn After Reading” this afternoon, the new Coen Bros. movie. I saw this movie ’cause I like the Coen Bros. work and I saw this because Clooney, Pitt and Malkovich are all starring in a movie together which is great casting.

The plot centers on a CIA analyst named Osbourne Cox (who is played by John Malkovich) quits his job after being accused of being an alcoholic when he wasn’t. Then he begins to work on a book based on his life in the CIA. Osbourne’s wife wants to divorce him, she then makes a copy of a computer disc full of his personal and financial files that were in his own privacy.

The disc ends up up at a business called Hardbodies which is a work out gym, Brad Pitt’s character, Chad, first gets a hold of it, he teams up with his fellow co-worker Linda to use the disk to blackmail Osbourne so she can get the money to pay for her cosmetic surgery.

Linda (played by Frances McDormand) is a single woman who dates men off dating services, where she meets George Clooney’s character, Harry. Linda is only using Harry because he is a Treasury (someone who works for the US Government).

Does Osbourne Cox get his personal disc back and does he save himself from getting blackmailed by Linda and Chad? You’ll have to watch the film yourself to find out.

As far as my thoughts on the film, while I do love the Coen Bros. While I do love George Clooney, PItt and Malkovich. I thought this was a bad film. Bad acting. Bad writing. Boring story. Slow pacing. It was a real snooze fest. This is probably the worst film of 2008. I didn’t like it. It’s a shame because the Coen Bros. are great film makers and I loved every film they did until now.

I prefer their earlier work. Their last film “No Country For Old Men” was absolutely amazing. What a dissapointment that they went from Oscar award winning film to a horrible film. Thumbs down to “Burn After Reading”. What was Pitt, Clooney and Malkovich smoking when they signed to this? They probably didn’t like the story either, they probably starred in it ’cause the Coen Bros. directed it.

Score for “Burn After Reading” = * (1 star as in poor)

Kev