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Product Description

An all-star cast, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich, come together in this outrageous spy comedy about murder, blackmail, sex addiction and physical fitness! When a disc filled with some of the CIA's most irrelevant secrets gets in the hands of two determined, but dim-witted, gym employees, the duo are intent on exploiting their find. But since blackmail is a trade better left for the experts, events soon spiral out of everyone's and anyone's control, resulting in a non-stop series of hilarious encounters! From Joel and Ethan Coen, the Academy Award®-winning directors of No Country For Old Men and The Big Lebowski, comes this brilliantly clever and endlessly entertaining movie that critics are calling, "smart, funny, and original" (Ben Lyons, E!).

Bonus Content:

Finding the Burn
DC Insiders Run Amuck
Welcome Back, George

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After the dark brilliance of No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading may seem like a trifle, but few filmmakers elevate the trivial to art quite like Joel and Ethan Coen. Inspired by Stansfield Turner's Burn Before Reading, the comically convoluted plot clicks into gear when the CIA gives analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) the boot. Little does Cox know his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton, riffing on her Michael Clayton character), is seeing married federal marshal Harry (George Clooney, Swinton's Clayton co-star, playing off his Syriana role). To get back at the Agency, Cox works on his memoirs. Through a twist of fate, fitness club workers Linda (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt in a pompadour that recalls Johnny Suede) find the disc and try to wrangle a "Samaratin tax" out of the surly alcoholic. An avid Internet dater, Linda plans to use the money for plastic surgery, oblivious that her manager, Ted (The Visitor's Richard Jenkins), likes her just the way she is. Though it sounds like a Beltway remake of The Big Lebowski, the Coen entry it most closely resembles, this time the brothers concentrate their energies on the myriad insecurities endemic to the mid-life crisis--with the exception of Chad, who's too dense to share such concerns, leading to the funniest performance of Pitt's career. If Lebowski represented the Coen's unique approach to film noir, Burn sees them putting their irresistibly absurdist stamp on paranoid thrillers from Enemy of the State to The Bourne Identity. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from Burn After Reading (Click for larger image)

Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.85:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.58 x 5.37 x 7.49 inches; 0.01 Ounces
Item model number ‏ : ‎ 025195016490
Director ‏ : ‎ Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 36 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ December 21, 2008
Actors ‏ : ‎ George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton
Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ French
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ French, Spanish
Producers ‏ : ‎ Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Language ‏ : ‎ English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Unqualified, Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
Studio ‏ : ‎ Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001JIE7JC
Writers ‏ : ‎ Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #20,680 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #2,753 in Comedy (Movies & TV)

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Love this movie, very funny and a nice simple idea, but a little dark

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 4, 2022

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This in one of my favorite roles that Brad Pitt has been in, as a bro-gym rat type. He is hilarious and made me appreciate his talents more. Everyone in this movie seems perfectly cast, and the blindness of all the characters in their different ways makes this movie enjoyable. Blindness to their own motives and real desires. My wife thought the movie was a little brutal and dark, so I think I enjoyed it more than she did. The motives get mixed together and a little complex, so I enjoy watching the movie several times. It is kind of like a wind-up toy, we watch several characters get wound-up in their own ways and then set loose. Mayhem and hilarity results.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 21, 2022

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Except this is a Cohen film we are talking about. Darkly humorous, which is their trademark. :)

One person found this helpful

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wilsongibbons1

Brad Pitt is hysterical

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 14, 2022

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched this and each time I find it more funny. Kind of a Napoleon Dynamite film. Brad Pitt is sooo funny. I’ve never thought of him as funny, alas I was wrong!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 17, 2022

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This is one of my favorite movies. Its funny, exciting and well acted. John Malkovich is in fine form. Tilda Swinton plays the upscale wife. Highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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Dimetris L.

Good movie if you’re into this sort of humor

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 6, 2022

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Unfortunately, I was not familiar with the writers and/or director’s previous movies so I watched based on someone else. The movie held my attention to the end and when it ended suddenly I said what the hell??? There are some really stupid people in this world.

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Gregor von Kallahann

Right, Right, Naysayers, We Get It! Now please, No More "Burn BEFORE Viewing" Jokes

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 8, 2009

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The reviews have been mixed, and I'm not at all surprised. BURN AFTER READING won't be everybody's cup of Gatorade, but if you're one of the many naysayers who claim to find the film a major letdown after last year's officially designated Best Pic NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, well, let me just say, I do understand your point. But has it occurred to you that maybe you're less of a COEN BROS. fan and more of a CORMAC McCARTHY fan?

Yes, yes, I know that NO COUNTRY was supposed to be a case of the source material (the McCarthy novel of the same name) being the perfect fit for our two most idiosyncratic filmmakers, and in many ways, it was just that. But there was one significant difference, in my book anyway. And that was the person(?) of Anton Chigurh himself. We all know by now that Chigurh is quite simply the personification of implacable evil, less of human being than a force of supernature. And like a malevolent phoenix, he rises from the ashes more than once. One thing he's NOT is a bumbler. In that, he differs from just about every other Coen "bad guy," or for that matter, just about every other major Coen character.

Heck, even the seemingly invincible biker dude in RAISING ARIZONA turned out to be Wile E. Coyote in the end.

I know the Brothers don't particularly like to be intellectualized about, but if there's one common theme uniting all their work, it's probably that the entire human race is the Gang That Could't Shoot Straight. In the Coen's universe, we're all bad comic actors strutting and fretting for about 90 minutes on atarnished silver screen. Good guys or bad, small or mighty, it don't make no never mind. Usually, just like in real life, the misterioso elements that do occur (a cow on a barn, say) are just enough for us fools to scratch and wonder if just maybe there aren't more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt in our philosophy...OR our cinema. Or my name isn't Horatio!

If you keep the Coens' basic worldview in mind, you just may find that BURN AFTER READING is a near perfect expression of same. This is an absurd world where EVERYBODY is out of their league. And they've all watched too many spy movies. Even the spies--who really should know better. When John Malkovich--being the quintessential John Malkovich here--rails at Brad Pitt's buffoonish would-be blackmailer/"Good Samaritan" and tells him that he (Pitt) has no idea what he's up against, he's so into his espionage mode that you might forget for a second that he's just a (fired) CIA analyst penning what appears to be a not very revealing tell-all. In other words, this is not "spy vs. spy." It's "schlub vs. schlub."

And you gotta love that. Or at least I do. You can do what you want.

11 people found this helpful

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Daniel C. Cunningham

Burm before viewing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 16, 2015

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After viewing "O Brother, where art thou?," which I was intending to rate as a 1-star - no redeeming qualities - I watched "Burn....," with expectations of getting my money's worth this time. Both movies featured George Clooney, but "Burn" also included several top - or, recognizable - actors. There was Brad Pitt, playing a clueless, doofy fitness instructor who gets himself punched in the nose by John Malkovitch when he tries to be cool and get some reward money out of the ex-CIA agent for returning some secret classified information on a disc; and Malkovitch, as a burned-out agent who may or may not a drinking issue and who does nothing but rant and spew out obvious, simple lines, e.g. "what the fuck are you talking about?" and "You have no idea what you are fucking with ... this is way over your head," and that last clause he stole from a Jason Bourne movie that was in a class way above this one.

Then there is the head of the CIA, a man whose name escapes me, but who has been in many spy movies. He represents what? the sanity factor in a nutty movie. He is where the buck stops. He is the guy that M.'s supervisor comes to with the latest reports of the nutty characters have done - smashed cars, talked to Russians, murdered each other and fucked each other - to which he invariably replies with the voice of reason: "No, fuck 'em",....."Pay her,"....,or, "Let him stay in the coma; if he comes out of it we will deal it then.." and "Burn the body," Such decisive and to-the-point orders, delivered in his deep, confident voice reasure us that our nation's security is in good hands.

And there is the boss of the fitness gym, a sensitive and careing man, though not particularly strong, who played the hapless lawyer against Clooney in "Intolerable cruelty," a much funnier, class movie, that starred, Catherine Zeta-Jones, a class act herself. This time he is a hapless back-stop to the clueless blonde and simple Brad.

And the women. No-name, unattractive sluts. Compare this to "Intolerable...", where you had the pretty bimbo's as a sort of setting to showcase Zeta-Jpnes' dreamy, smooth, sexy, poised..... words fail me. These broads are all cuckolding married men on the side. Clooney's character's old lady's only redeeming quality is that she can swear - using American idiom - with a British accent: "...get the fuck dressed...what the fuckk..." None of them are memorable - none of them would I go out with on a second date.

If the movei were funny, or dramatic, or had a point, or showed some consistency, or... they routinely kill people with such indifference - Brad Pitt gets shot by Clooney - in almost an accident - it happened so fast - and then Clooney runs away - which I can relate to as he is just an ordinary guy who who was surprised to find a man luking in the bedroom closet of his whore's apt. - so why was there a bucket of blood all over the closet - from a clean shot through the head??? Who did the screen-writng here? The fitness center boss gets confronted in Malkovitch's whore's home, by Malkovitch, wearing a bathrobe, with a drink in one hand and a generic automatic in the other. He shows some character by not begging for his life and by telling the truth when Malkovitch babblingly accuses him of being his woman's lover, of working for one or more of the spy organizatons, of being one of the idiots that have been fucking up Malkovitch's life forever. He just calmly denies the accusations and explains that he is tryng to help his people: Brad Pitt, and the inept, goofy blonde. And so M. shoots him. Casually. In the chest. With what? a 9mm.? So then he recovers and attacks M. with a piece of hardware and sprints up the stairs and out to the street? Say what? With a hole through his lung? So M., in his rage hacks the man to pieces with a hatchet. O.K.!

And I don't appreciate the wild driving and smashing unoffending cars up either.

IS there some message here? That our brave, dedicated men and women in positions of national security are just ordinary humans? Actually they are trash. This is a spy spoof, O.K., but it missed the mark - good actors in silly roles with bad dialogue, incoherent plot.

In the end this Burn was not as awful as "O Brother..." which was an attempt at a slap-stick comedy, a parody of Southern culture.. or something? If there was a plot I missed it - but - you are wondering why I sat throught the movie if it was so bad? - I kept skipping ahead to get to the good part.

Great actors in a bad movie with childish script.. it doesn't do it for me.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

MarmiteMan

I am certainly laughing now

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 12, 2019

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... and unfortunately at the expense of Ricardo Cardoso, Esq.

Was going to accord this gentleman reviewer [see 27 July 2019] the standard Comedy Is Subjective courtesy as, well, To Each, Their Own, etc. and just let it pass. But as he further went on to dismiss Coen Brothers cult classic THE BIG LEBOWSKI as “real nonsense” ... he committed a sacrilege which cannot go unanswered! I fear he has completely missed the point. Twice! Methinks he doth protest too much, as it is clear ... he simply does not Get It.

Ricardo, me old china, you are clearly not English and so can be excused, certainly forgiven, for not grasping one of the great joys in Life: irony! Obviously “humour is a very serious thing” to you; you laud the slapstick Greats, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, kudos for that (wot, no Laurel & Hardy?). But really, your first venture into reviewing on Amazon is “to warn people” ...? Two whole paragraphs ‘explaining funny’ ...??? What trenchant hauteur! If one needs to ‘explain’ it, one is immediately demonstrating an absence of humour. Perhaps you are the John Malkovich character and his meltdown cuts too close to the bone? And as to Brad Pitt’s character “just making a fool of ... us” ... why are you taking this so much to heart? Both the film’s funny (Clooney, McDormand, Pitt) and straight (Malkovich, Swinton) men/women/thespians are playing to their strengths. I, for one, am really sorry you cannot see it.

For myself (and I suspect a great many others), the ‘funniest’ part of BURN AFTER READING is the CIA observing and reporting on every character and their interactions, duly reporting this to higher-ups ... but not knowing, at all, What It’s All About. The two scenes of David Rasche briefing J.K. Simmons ripple with wry irony!

Back to THE BIG LEBOWSKI, are you not comforted knowing that, by going with the flow, The Dude is giving his life, his entire being, to Taking It Easy for the rest of us? Are you not aware that ‘Dudeism,’ an entire new branch of Philosophy (not to mention literature and merchandising) now exists, thanks to this Comic Messiah?!! Our sacred high holy day is 6th March, The Day of The Dude, eg. dressing-gowns and White Russians. I recommend you try and practice what He preaches, and perhaps you, too, may achieve, if only a measure of happiness, spiritual fulfilment and inner peace ... ;-)

3 people found this helpful

J

The Darkest of Black Comedies

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 5, 2018

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This film is very, very dark, however it is also very very funny, it is certainly a very acquired taste of funny as it deals with situations and circumstances which are generally not assumed to be humorous, and at times you do feel a little uncomfortable with the fact that you are finding it funny.

John Malkovich is outstanding as the on the edge CIA operative who you see unraveling before your very eyes, and seeing Brad Pitt portrayed as a complete moron and George Cloony as a pathetic loser is just sublime. The premise (without giving anything away) is that each character is having some kind of mid life crisis due to circumstances they are in and those circumstances collide and become entwined with the others and situations escalate and a farce ensues.

I would be the first to admit that it is certainly not everyone's cup of tea and you have to have a pretty unique sense of humour to fully appreciate it and see the humour, but it is a very well crafted film and can be enjoyed on many other levels.

8 people found this helpful

Monster D.

disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 29, 2021

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With the cast involved this should have been top notch but it lost its way early and never really came over as either a comedy or even a poor drama.
IMO the reason for the let down in the script is the very same star studded cast who all obviously need to be accommodated in the story . Brad Pitt again very disappointing in this film.

One person found this helpful

Ricardo Cardoso

I am not laughing now

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 27, 2019

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I had never written a review for Amazon, although I am a long time serving customer. I decided to write this one to warn people who might care to read it. The point is: this movie is NOT funny. Not at all. It was, for me, a complete waste of time and money. Let me try to explain.
"Miller's Crossing", "Fargo", "The Man Who Wasn't There", "No Country For Old Men" are excellent movies. Despite the fact that they won Oscars (I suppose). Once in every 10 years or so, one very fine movie manages to win an Oscar. I am really a fan of the Coen brothers. But when it comes to humour they become completely hopeless. Humour is a very serious thing, it is not easy to make people laugh. Or to make me laugh, if you prefer, although I enjoy laughing a lot. There are certain comic geniuses who make people laugh: Charlie Chaplin, the greatest of them all, Buster Keaton, an American comic genius, Monty Python, Woody Allen and not many others. The trouble is that to make people laugh you have to be funny, of course, but you must not try to be funny. It is something that comes from within or else it does not. That is the case with this movie. They keep trying to be funny all the time and, of course, they do not succeed. Brad Pitt is a very good actor, I even admire his courage trying to play his role, but it is a complete failure, he's just making a fool of . . . us. Frances McDormand is a magnificent actress, I will never forget her in "Fargo", it is simply a perfect performance. And she is even funny in that movie, because she is not trying to be, she is acting honestly. Although the most "funny" part in "Fargo" is played by William H. Macy - a fabulous actor (and Steve Buscemi too). In this movie, however, she tries to be funny, to "exaggerate", and the result is almost painful to watch. Not funny at all. Tilda Swinton is the best of the cast. She never smiles, she never laughs (à la Buster Keaton), she's not trying to be funny, she just acts very decently.
Anyway, the main point about this movie should be: it is NOT funny at all. That is what matters. I remember when George Clooney falls down the stairs after finding an intruder hidden in a wardrobe (oh! what originality!): he's trying to be funny once again but . . . does it make you laugh? If it does this may be a film for you. If it doesn't, skip the real nonsense of this movie and switch to the true glorious nonsense of Monty Python. There are several "historical" precedents, of course, in American cinema. Spielberg, a fine director when it comes to "suspense" ("Duel" is one of the best suspense movies I have ever seen, "Jaws" is fine too), also tried to be funny: "1941". A complete disaster, really painful to watch, it could not elicit a single smile from me. And the Coen brothers too: "The Big Lebowsky", real nonsense once again.
Let me finish adapting to my purposes an utterance by Woody Allen (which has nothing to do with this movie). When I heard about another "comic" movie by the Coen brothers I reacted with a condescending little laugh. Well, I am certainly not laughing now.

3 people found this helpful

BM2662

Hilarious adult comedy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 16, 2019

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I love this movie. It cracks me up every time I watch.
Malkovich and Clooney are simply sublime
Clooney is such a good comedian. He has perfect timing. Why oh why have these prodigious skills been ultised more often?
The movie is extremely adult (not sexually) with so much swearing. But this is comedy.
The heyday of great comedies is long past so I cherish contemporary classics.
They are a rarity

One person found this helpful

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Genre	DVD Movie, Blu-ray Movie, Comedy, Art House & International
Format	Multiple Formats, AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Contributor	Brad Pitt, David Rasche, John Malkovich, Ethan Coen, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, Joel Coen, George Clooney, J.K. Simmons, Elizabeth Marvel, Frances McDormand See more
Language	English, French
Number Of Discs	1

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Burn After Reading

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