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Burn After Reading (2008)

tomatometer

78

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 222
Fresh: 173 | Rotten: 49

With Burn After Reading, the Coen Brothers have crafted another clever comedy/thriller with an outlandish plot and memorable characters.

63

Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 43
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 16

With Burn After Reading, the Coen Brothers have crafted another clever comedy/thriller with an outlandish plot and memorable characters.

audience

64

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 149,778

My Rating

Movie Info

Joel and Ethan Coen's jet-black comedy Burn After Reading begins with CIA agent Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) losing his job. This prompts his long-suffering, unfaithful wife (Tilda Swinton) to consult a lawyer about divorcing him. Osborne decides to write a book about his exploits, but an early draft of his work ends up lost at a gym where it's found by the dim-witted Chad (Brad Pitt, and the plastic-surgery obsessed Linda (Frances McDormand). They decide to blackmail Osborne in order to help

R, 1 hr. 36 min.

Drama, Comedy

,

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Dec 21, 2008

$60.3M

Focus Features

Cast

All Critics (222) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (178) | Rotten (50) | DVD (19)

These are functioning morons, they walk and work among us. And they are brilliant and funny and in spite of the screwball-comedy nature of the story, they are completely believable.

November 7, 2008 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

, Frances McDormand might get nominated for an Academy Award in a supporting role. She was great.

November 7, 2008 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

For fans of the Coens... it suggests, especially on the heels of No Country for Old Men, that they have rediscovered their cinematic vision after several lean years.

September 16, 2008 Full Review Source: New Republic | Comment
New Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

On screen, delusional schmoes are more fun than smart people, and in the latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen, the imperious former spook played by John Malkovich accuses his blackmailers...of heading a league of morons.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comments (10)
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Burn After Reading is a piffle, but it's a savagely amusing one.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | Comment
Christian Science Monitor
Top Critic IconTop Critic

After the portentous No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen return to their trademark brand of cruel, misanthropic farce, and for dark laughs and hurtling narrative momentum this spy caper is their best work since Fargo.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comments (5)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A quirky tale of lust, greed, vanity, idiocy and ineptitude that spreads its giggly ripples through the bureaucratic buildings and leafy suburbs of Washington, D.C.

September 28, 2011 Full Review Source: American Profile | Comment

A month from now you'll have forgotten all about it.

August 15, 2011 Full Review Source: East Bay Express | Comment
East Bay Express

Coen fans will also enjoy their distinct brand of whip-cracking dialogue, which is almost musical in its rhythms.

July 14, 2011 Full Review Source: Digital Spy | Comment
Digital Spy

Sure Burn After Reading is disjointed, fragmented and frustrated. But that's the point.

March 24, 2011 Full Review Source: What Culture | Comment

Gratuitous stuff, flat and desperate

August 26, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comment (1)
CinePassion

It's a just-for-funsies caper, and the Coen brothers seem to revel in it, helped along by an impressive cast that gleefully follows their lead.

August 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Times-Picayune | Comment
Times-Picayune

Fails to live up to the high expectations involuntarily set by such reputable talent.

August 1, 2009 Comment
Cut Print Review

a quirky, delicious comedy with an A-list cast clearly enjoying every moment of their screen time

April 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Screenwize | Comment
Screenwize

comes across even better in a second viewing

March 5, 2009 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

Please send Get Well cards to the Coen Brothers. After last year's No Country for Old Men, for which they won the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year, Joel and Ethan Coen have had a relapse. Their new offering Burn After Reading is reminiscen

February 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | Comment
Fayetteville Free Weekly

A bunch of pieces in search of a puzzle.

January 12, 2009 Full Review Source: ÜberCiné | Comments (2)
ÜberCiné

Unlikable characters who do stupid things.

January 6, 2009 Full Review Source: The Cinema Source | Comment

Burn Before Watching.

January 3, 2009 Full Review Source: MovieCrypt.com | Comments (18)
MovieCrypt.com

The Coen Brothers go undercover creatively for this playful spy comedy, twisting colliding plot schemes and lines alike while juggling online stranger sex and an uncooperative ex-CIA extortion victim with violent tendencies.

December 29, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

Una disparatada comedia que le toma el pelo a la (des)inteligencia norteamericana, de la mano de un puñado de personajes absurdos animados por un estupendo elenco.

December 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Burn After Reading

This movie confused the hell out of me and left me wondering why it was sold as a black comedy. Brad Pitt's performance is its one saving grace and Frances McDormand as always is brilliant. Surprising and attentive, I cannot say I did not enjoy it the first time but I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth and

August 24, 2011
theunknownhobo
Unknown Hobo

Super Reviewer

Rather enjoyable, strange film. A good one nonetheless, but not the best from the Coen brothers

July 10, 2011
Idrees Khan

Super Reviewer

    1. Chad Feldheimer: You think that's a Schwinn?
    – Submitted by Michael C (12 days ago)
    1. Chad Feldheimer: Appearances can be... deceptive.
    – Submitted by jacob k (4 months ago)
    1. Chad Feldheimer: Osbourne Cox?
    – Submitted by jacob k (4 months ago)
    1. Chad Feldheimer: Appearances can be... deceptive.
    – Submitted by jacob k (4 months ago)
    1. Linda Litzke: That's fantastic.
    – Submitted by Alejandro O (5 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

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