Posted October 18, 200816 yr http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/Burn_After_Reading.jpg OK its not their best film - but yeah it is good and lots of fun...with a number of stand out performances including one by J. K. Simmons - imo the CIA men are actually the best characters in a film of 'characters'. and even with all the bad language and special seating arrangements in it - a film that my dad actually enjoyed as well when he came along to see it...
October 19, 200816 yr It was always going to be hard for the Coens to follow on from "No Country For Old Men" though, I mean, that was just absolutely exceptional.... Just as after the superb "Fargo", they did the rather odd "Big Lebowski" (which I grew to like after initially not really being into...), but I can see why they want to go to what could be considered an opposite end, the Coens dont tend to just stand still and merely replicate what they've done before, they always try to push the envelope... I'm going to see this on Wednesday....
October 19, 200816 yr Author It was always going to be hard for the Coens to follow on from "No Country For Old Men" though but you dont compare it with NCFOM - its like if you were a member of a metal band and you had a side-project doing olde worlde bohemian folke...its still you but not the same kinda vibe...
October 20, 200816 yr but you dont compare it with NCFOM... I wasn't comaparing them as such, I was saying that the Coen's were "following on" from that film into different territory.... Which is sometimes the best thing a film-maker can do....
October 25, 200816 yr I saw it today. What. The. F***. springs to mind. I'm clearly not smart enough to get the intelligence behind it, or light-hearted enough to get the joke. Whilst there were some hilarious moments, and a fantastic performance from Frances McDormand, this was just TOO 'what's going on?!' for me to cope with. Whilst I understand that this is kind of the point of the movie, it's ultimately too underwhelming and unenjoyable for me.
November 1, 200816 yr Author I saw it today. What. The. F***. springs to mind. I'm clearly not smart enough to get the intelligence behind it, or light-hearted enough to get the joke. maybe the second one? wouldnt say its a film that you need great intelligence to try and work out a greater meaning to it...just a film to sit back and enjoy
November 2, 200816 yr Whilst there were some hilarious moments, and a fantastic performance from Frances McDormand, this was just TOO 'what's going on?!' for me to cope with. Whilst I understand that this is kind of the point of the movie, it's ultimately too underwhelming and unenjoyable for me. You know, I kind of thought that with "The Big Lebowski" (of course, replacing the fantastic performance of Fraces McDormand with the fantastic performance by Jeff Bridges...LOL) when it came after their magnificent "Fargo".. But then, I went back to the film a year or so later on video, and something just clicked in my head, and I thoroughly LOVE it now, "Barton Fink" was like that too, and I think "Blood Simple" just fried people's brains when it first came out in 1981... The Coens can be a bit like that, their work really needs repeated viewings to fully appreciate a lot of the time, I remember Russ saying that it took a second viewing for him to enjoy "No Country For Old Men".... But, I would much rather they dumfound me than bore me sh"tless as they did with their incredibly ill-advised remake of "The Ladykillers", or that sh!t-awful "Intolerable Cruelty"....
November 2, 200816 yr You know, I kind of thought that with "The Big Lebowski" (of course, replacing the fantastic performance of Fraces McDormand with the fantastic performance by Jeff Bridges...LOL) when it came after their magnificent "Fargo".. But then, I went back to the film a year or so later on video, and something just clicked in my head, and I thoroughly LOVE it now, "Barton Fink" was like that too, and I think "Blood Simple" just fried people's brains when it first came out in 1981... The Coens can be a bit like that, their work really needs repeated viewings to fully appreciate a lot of the time, I remember Russ saying that it took a second viewing for him to enjoy "No Country For Old Men".... I thought The Big Lebowski was awful and thoroughly overrated. I loved Fargo and The Hudsucker Proxy but TBL just didn't hit any targets with me. It wasn't serious enough to be a straight film and nowhere near funny or ironic enough to be a comedy. I must just be missing something I suppose. Norma
November 7, 200816 yr maybe the second one? wouldnt say its a film that you need great intelligence to try and work out a greater meaning to it...just a film to sit back and enjoy Oh, I think there IS a greater meaning to it, the Coens are just using black humour to illustrate a point... Look at it this way, the film to me is all about the paranoia of living in a place like Washington, which is really the Intelligence capital of the world, and where the seat of power is in the US (so, paranoia is surely a given)... Clooney's character is unbelievably paranoid, but he actually has grounds to be, because people really ARE out to get him, only they're not the people he thinks; Malkovich's character is also a paranoid lunatic, but given his background in CIA intelligence, he also has a right to be paranoid, for him, it's a survival mechanism... The film is all about how paranoia makes people act in completely unreasonable and destructive ways.. Just because the Coens use humour as their weapon, for me, it's just as paranoid a film as stuff like "The Conversation" or "Parallax View".... The Coens have oft used black humour as a tool to make a point about the wider human condition, "Fargo" is a particular example as well.... I found this film to be both humourous and serious at the same time.. It is making a point about the ridiculousness of the Intelligence community in the US, but chooses comedy. It's deceptively light-hearted and enjoyable on the surface, but make no mistake, the Coens do have an axe to grind here..... I think the use of the overtly political song and its cynical lyrical content at the end of the film should really bring home what the Coens are trying to do here.... 8/10 from me... A good, solid film from the Coens....
November 21, 200816 yr I liked it. Not their best, but the cast and characters were amazing. I need to see it again before reaching a final verdict.
November 26, 200816 yr Author You know, I kind of thought that with "The Big Lebowski" (of course, replacing the fantastic performance of Fraces McDormand with the fantastic performance by Jeff Bridges...LOL) when it came after their magnificent "Fargo".. But then, I went back to the film a year or so later on video, and something just clicked in my head, and I thoroughly LOVE it now, "Barton Fink" was like that too, and I think "Blood Simple" just fried people's brains when it first came out in 1981... The Coens can be a bit like that, their work really needs repeated viewings to fully appreciate a lot of the time, I remember Russ saying that it took a second viewing for him to enjoy "No Country For Old Men".... no i really liked that film from the first time i saw it - tho have watched it again on dvd since then (1st week purchase as well!!!)
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