Boring and tedious

Rating: 2/10 (20 June 2010)

The Coen Brothers are the rebels of the film industry. They never use Hollywood conventions and formulas, and that's what makes them so unique. The Cormac McCarthy book, "No Country for Old Men," was considered unfilmable by many, yet it was lauded by critics and audiences alike (it won, though undeservedly, the Best Picture Oscar, but I thought "Atonement" was better). However, while the Coens' are undeniably talented, they are not flawless. And this time, they've created a real stinker.
There's a lot going on in this movie, very little of which is actually interesting. The main storyline revolves around a pair of nitwit gym employees (both of whom would rival Romy and Michelle for lack of brainpower) who get a hold of a disk of private information belonging to an (ex) CIA analyst, Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), and use it to get rich quick by various means.
The characters here are either idiots or too smart for their own good. None of them, however, are interesting or funny. All the actors, which include Brad Pitt (as one of the brainless gym employees), Frances McDormand (as the other one), John Malkovich, George Clooney as a paranoid philanderer), and Tilda Swinton (as Cox's wife), have given terrific performances in the past, and they certainly give it their all in this film, but it's all for naught. This movie really sucks.
Part of the problem is that it's bloated. Clooney and Swinton's roles are more or less inconsequential, and could have been almost completely written out. But the real reason is that for all the twists and shocks (something the Coens are famous for), is that it's just boring and unfunny.
Avoid.