Burn After Reading

[Ran]

John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and others get together for an ironic spin story. Sounds good right? Yeah, you'd think but sadly not so.

The movie attempts to deliver a comedy with a twist of irony in it's attempted serious undertone. Brad Pitt's character is perhaps the most humorous of the primary cast with George Clooney coming in a distant second. Excessive language, an improper flow of story, and no truly comfortable characters combines to suck the humor out of an otherwise promising film. Ah, let's not forget the two scenes of graphic gore thrown in for shock treatment. That did wonders for the film. The first being a shock attempt and able to work back into the film, but the second being far too late in the film and unable to reset the original tone. The irony of the entire situation is witty, but buried so far under a pile of crap that it really loses it's charm and is lost in the flurry of unnecessary information.

The only real saving grace of this film was Brad Pitt and the CIA Superior played by J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-man). His witty disregard for the public good and cover-up of the situation added some much needed lines to the film. The ending being by far one of the best I've heard in a while.

CIA Superior: "So, what did we learn today?"
CIA Agent: "I...don't know, sir."
CIA Superior: "Well hell if I know either. I guess...we learned not to do it again."
Cia Agent: "Yes sir."
CIA Superior: "Hell if I know what we did to begin with."

Indeed.

Burn After Reading: C-