He said:
The Coen brothers have done it again; made another memorable piece, first, with their 2007 gritty crime- drama No Country for Old Men, and now with their 2008 comedy Burn After Reading. The movie stars George Clooney, John Malkovich, and a very funny Brad Pitt. The Coens’ latest comedy, built on numerous misunderstandings between characters, falls somewhere between their cult classics The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The action begins when Malkovich’s character, Osbourne Cox, gets demoted as a CIA analys . He soon rushes home to the liquor cabinet and begins writing his memoirs. In the process, a CD-ROM containing a draft of Cox’s memoirs is accidentally left in a locker at a fitness center run by, played by Pitt and Frances McDormand.

Pitt is hilarious in his skin tight gym clothes, giant white sneakers, and ill-mannered behavior. McDormand gives an entertaining performance as a self-conscious woman determined to remake herself through cosmetic surgery.

One of the key aspects of the film’s success is that every actor finds inventive ways to make his or her on-screen personas entertaining to the audience. The masterminds of the Oceans 11, 12 and 13, heists, the clever cop from Fargo, and the stars of many other heavy-hitting independent films are all idiots here.

The movie is hysterical in parts, and I sat there waiting for the movie to surpass itself, to erupt to some totally new ground of lunacy. Although the Coens weren’t aiming for another masterpiece with this film, I found the movie to be a light fare after No Country. And because every character is an absolute moron, I found it hard to relate to anyone. All the movie leaves you with are a lot of laughs —but with any Coen comedy, that’s more than enough.

She said:
If you need a really good belly laugh, Burn After Reading is the movie to watch. With an all-star cast including Brad Pitt and George Clooney (both from Ocean’s Eleven) Frances McDormand (from the Cohen Brother’s Fargo) and John Malkovich (from Being John Malkovich), it can hardly go wrong. Even if you don’t like politics this cast of pros plays its characters to perfection.

Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand carry the show. Their characters are the epitome of everyday, uneducated, working folk who obviously believe that movies and TV reflect the reality of the world.

McDormand plays an older woman who ventures into Internet dating and is positive she must improve herself physically in order to succeed at her job – and she needs a lot of money for these improvements. Co-worker and friend Pitt plays a low-income, health-nut, wanna-be metrosexual with a serious case of attention deficit disorder. He is just a big, dumb puppy who is way too naive for his own good.

Malkovich plays an ex-CIA agent facing the total dissolution of life as he knows it, and alternates between being calm and even tempered, with a violent streak that will shock you in it’s timing.

Clooney’s oversexed CIA agent complicates the plot by having an affair with Malkovich’s wife, the coldest woman ever to have sex; a quality that doesn’t seem to bother Clooney one bit.

Together, this cast effectively illustrates the wide gulf between the world of the so-called ‘average’ man and that of the “spook”, the “ghost” or the spy and debunks the belief that mysterious equals glamorous. These two worlds meet in unexpected and wildly humorous ways that will have you rolling in the aisles. Expect nothing and you will enjoy this ride. The ending of the movie is in keeping with the message.

To me, the plot itself is boring. If it weren’t for brilliant casting, this film would take a serious dive. Brad Pitt steals the show—not because of his looks this time, but because he commits so deeply to the idiocy of his character—h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!

You are in for a treat.