Critic Reviews
Burn After Reading (2008) Rank 2 Reviews
Expert Review Summary
based on (151) reviews
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Poor
0
(0)
Reviews by Score:
Sacramento News & Review (Jonathan Kiefer)
Click to read the article ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Sacramento News & Review (Jonathan Kiefer)
Sky Movies (Elliott Noble)
Burn After Reading is a clown-mobile; a comical death-trap constructed from lots of disposable parts. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Sky Movies (Elliott Noble)
Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)
Click to read the article ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)
Decent Films Guide (Steven D. Greydanus)
It’s morbidly absurdist, thoroughly pointless, and can certainly be funny at times, even acutely so, with a freakish bathos that can be hard to look away from. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Decent Films Guide (Steven D. Greydanus)
Sacramento Bee (Carla Meyer)
An entertaining but slight Coen brothers comedy that benefits immensely from Pitt's and Clooney's dumbbell acts. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Sacramento Bee (Carla Meyer)
jackiekcooper.com (Jackie K. Cooper)
A movie so full of senseless characters and actions that you 'forget after seeing' ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at jackiekcooper.com (Jackie K. Cooper)
Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
Pitt's the only person in Burn After Reading who consistently generates laughs - which, for a Coen brothers comedy, is an appalling batting average. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips)
On screen, delusional schmoes are more fun than smart people, and in the latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen, the imperious former spook played by John Malkovich accuses his blackmailers...of heading a league of morons. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips)
Boston Globe (Ty Burr)
The difference between Burn After Reading and much better Coen comedies like Raising Arizona, Fargo, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? is that the brothers' smugness has finally gone over the top. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Boston Globe (Ty Burr)
Detroit News (Tom Long)
A thoroughly disposable comic romp made by a bunch of people who probably should have been working on bigger and better things, Burn After Reading is sure to frustrate just about anyone who goes to see it. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Detroit News (Tom Long)
Variety (Todd McCarthy)
Everything here has been dialed up to an almost grotesquely exaggerated extent, making for a film that feels misjudged from the opening scene and thereafter only occasionally hits the right note. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Variety (Todd McCarthy)
Cinema Signals (Jules Brenner)
One doesn't think twice about seeing a Coen Brothers comedy satire. Unfortunately, "Burn After Reading" is not one I'd run to see twice. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Cinema Signals (Jules Brenner)
Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum)
Once more in Burn After Reading [the Coens] goof around, in their arch, bemused way, with conventions of genre -- a little screwball here, some spy spoof there. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum)
MSNBC (Alonso Duralde)
You’ll find yourself waiting for the comedy to kick in, or for the serious stuff to get more serious, but the movie timidly avoids both ends of the pool, floating listlessly before it finally sinks below the surface. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at MSNBC (Alonso Duralde)
![Burn After Reading (2008) scores a combined 1.60 out of 4 stars for Guardian [UK] (Peter Bradshaw)](../images/1_5.gif)
Guardian [UK] (Peter Bradshaw)
Burn After Reading is the Coens' most mediocre film in a long time: a desperately strained black comic farce. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Guardian [UK] (Peter Bradshaw)
Times [UK] (Matthew De Abaitua)
Halfway between a good Coen brothers movie and a terrible Coen brothers movie. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Times [UK] (Matthew De Abaitua)
Paste Magazine (Robert Davis)
The script chases its tail for an hour and a half and then conks out, tired and strangely satisfied with its catch. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at Paste Magazine (Robert Davis)
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 the complete Burn After Reading movie review at New York Daily News (Joe Neumaier)
San Francisco Examiner (Rossiter Drake)
Here, the brothers weave an elaborate, misanthropic web of desperation and betrayal around a group of characters so jaded they take no real pleasure from their artless deceptions and sordid affairs. Imagine how we feel. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at San Francisco Examiner (Rossiter Drake)
TIME Magazine (Richard Corliss)
Burn After Reading is a movie about stupidity that left me feeling stupid. ...read the complete Burn After Reading movie review at TIME Magazine (Richard Corliss)
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User Reviews
User Review Summary
based on (4) reviews
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Excellent
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Good
2
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by blake on January 22, 2009 Ogden, Utah
This movie has almost no comedic elements to it. It makes attempts to be a black comedy, but it comes across as sad. The characters are too over the top and unrealistic. Not how a proper mockery and satire should be done. The movie has no real ending. It ...
by tiffany on January 21, 2009 Ogden, Utah
Had a horrible plot, lack of humor. With the exception of the over energized Brad Pitt. It was nothing like I had hoped. There were things in the movie that wouldn't be explained till half way through and by then you are trying to figure out the ...
by jonny on January 21, 2009 Ogden, Utah
With a all star cast this movies was not very entertaining ... A waste of time and DVD Rental money. ...
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