RECOMMENDED: It is an uncomfortable truth we must tell you now. We do it not to ruin your fun or spoil anything but just as a way of warning: >Burn After Reading, the new Coen Brothers movie is not — repeat, NOT — good. In fact, it’s probably the worst movie they’ve ever made. IN FACT, pretty much everything good that happens in the movie is in the trailer at right. However, it’s still a Coen Brothers movie, and that’s usually better than anything else at a given moment, and looking at this week’s releases, it still wins by default. What’s the problem? Burn After Reading never really gets going. Like all Coen Bros. movies, it’s got great characters: George Clooney as an oversexed Lothario, John Malkovich as a spurned CIA agent who gradually goes kind of nuts, Tilda Swinton as the ice queen that comes between them, and so on. But Frances McDormand as a plastic surgery-obsessed personal trainer eventually gets grating — but Brad Pitt is actually great as her Huckleberry — and ultimately, you get the sense that the Brothers just painted themselves into a corner with this one, and all of a sudden, it’s over. And I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t this the kind of thing people said about The Big Lebowski? Yes it is, but there’s an important distinction to be made here: That time, “they” were wrong.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 1:53 pm.