Burn Baby Burn, It is a Coen Comedic Farce Inferno!

Rating: Null/10 (21 September 2008)

Let me spark up this film review of the new Coen Brothers' offering "Burn After Reading" with witty pun banter in order for you not to burn before reading. The Coens return to their screwball dark comedy noir with "Burn After Reading" that, by the way, practices the cinematic characterization of "no country for dull men". The film's central characters possess an unremitting egoistic-burning sensation that intertwines swimmingly with their screwball behavior for supreme sheer entertainment value. These quirky characters nearly supersede and extinguish the plot of "Burn After Reading"; because I would burn up with laughter every time they displayed their surreal eccentricities and not care so much on the narrative's developments. But there is still a plot to be told of "Burn After Reading". John Malkovich plays Osborne Cox, a hot-tempered CIA Analyst who writes a memoir after he wrathfully resigns from his CIA long-term employment. Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand exercise their acting by portraying Chad & Linda, two gym trainers who inadvertently end up with a copy of Cox's CD memoir and consequently want to play the blackmail game with The Wizard of Mad Os. George Clooney plays Harry Pfarrer, a neurotic U.S. Marshall whose mentally-deranged marshal plan is overflowed with profound paranoia. Harry is having an affair with Cox's domineering pediatrician wife Katie played by the stupendous Tilda Swinton. Character-actor king Richard Jenkins plays Ted Treffon, the reserved gym owner who craves for the romantic acceptance of Linda. David Rasche and J.K. Simmons play two CIA Operatives who are trying to unscramble all this burning mess into a concise, well-read depiction. Are you now burned out after reading the mishmash chaos of "Burn After Reading"? Whatever the case, Joel and Ethan Coen continue their hot Hollywood streak by cleverly writing up characters which encompass scene-stealing qualities. I will be burning mad if the film does not garner a Screen Actors Guild "Best Ensemble Acting" nomination. All the actors were phenomenal. But primary props have to go to Pitt's hilarious performance as the dumbbell Chazz, McDormand's usual skin-deep wondrous acting as the cosmetic-surgery obsessed Linda, and Malkovich just being the great John Malkovich as the mad Cox Osborne. My only minor burning issue with the auteurs here was the slight overacting of George Clooney, but maybe I am just being too paranoid here a la his character Harry. So maybe you have read other film reviews that outmatch mines on the breakdown & analysis of "Burn After Reading", but I do not think you will find another "Burn After Reading" film review that has as many "Puns During Reading" as the one delivered by yours truly. Burn rubber today and book a visit to "Burn After Reading". ***** Excellent