Angelina Jolie: Changeling Trailer!

TONIGHT, the Coen brothers invite you to spend $12 in exchange for the information that people are idiots.

I’m not saying they’re wrong, but Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Burn After Reading” doesn’t accomplish much as it juggles an idiot marshal (George Clooney), two moronic health-club workers (Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand), an obtuse ex-CIA man (John Malkovich) and his cold (though presumably bright) wife (Tilda Swinton), whose clashes, or rather loopy encounters, stem from the loss of “highly classified s - - t,” as the Pitt character keeps putting it.

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.”

Most audiences will find it a head-scratcher with a dismaying act of violence and a haphazard plot that fizzles out without any of the main characters on-screen.

Another CIA man (J.K. Simmons) summarizes, “I’m f - - - ed if I know what we did,” and viewers will agree.

Malkovich’s CIA analyst quits the agency when offered a demotion, angering his wife, who is having an affair with a married treasury man (Clooney) who boasts that he carries a

gun at all times but never has

to use it.

His other pistol is always firing, though; he uses the Internet to trawl for more girlfriends, including a woman (McDormand) who works at a health club where she dreams of being able to afford a surgical full-body makeover.

When she and her dim co-worker (Pitt) discover a data disc left behind in a locker room (it came from the Swinton character’s lawyer - she was downloading everything from her husband’s computer with an eye toward divorcing him), they first try to blackmail the CIA man, then try to sell it to the Russians (who ask, in one of the best lines, “PC or Mac?”)

The film is a sort of Beltway “Blood Simple” played for laughs, flavored with contempt and nihilism. The wit rarely rises beyond the sort of smarminess that the Coens have shown signs of outgrowing in recent films, such as their best and least jokey one, “No Country for Old Men.”

Malkovich mutters pompously about the principles of George Kennan and gets drunk singing the ol’ Princeton fight song with fellow aristo-coots.

McDormand (playing Linda Litzke) worries that her breasts are “minimal,” Swinton barely makes a mark as a generic harridan and Clooney, as he has in several other comedies, goes to far too much effort plastering silly looks on his mug.

Pitt, flapping his arms to the beat of his iPod and saying things like, “Do you have any water? I gotta hydrate,” has to be told that, when attempting extortion, one should wear something more formal than a cranberry health-club uniform.

As much as anything, the movie is about the pieces of flair (Clooney’s plaid shirts and mall-rat gold chain, Pitt’s spandex workout gear, Malkovich’s sagging boxers) that, to the supercool filmmakers, signify American grotesqueness. No attempt is made to give the audience a character to identify with.

When Malkovich complains, “You’re part of a league of morons,” he is supplying what might have been an excellent title for the film. All of this is exactly as intended, though, so it’s hard to argue the film is a failure (except financially - that argument will be pretty easy to make).

The Coens are proud of the diversity of genres in which they work, yet their vision is pretty consistent. “Burn After Reading” doesn’t stray much, philosophically, from “No Country for Old Men,” which itself concluded with a cosmic shrug instead of a comic one.

The Coens are ice-pick cruel, dismissive of sentiment, meticulous in their design and utterly without hope. Sometimes they’re so repelled that their work is itself mildly repellent, at least on a first viewing.

BURN AFTER READING

For some eyes only.

Running time: 96 minutes. Rated R (graphic violence, profanity, sexual content). At the Empire, the Union Square, the Battery Park, others.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/peopleinthenews/story/BE5ECAC847F72DD1862574C100825782?OpenDocument
One for Papa Pitt. Looking forward to seeing Burn After Reading.
Brad Pitt, sexiest man alive, is also one of the silliest

09/12/2008

Being beautiful isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sometimes you want to be respected for your brains and talent.

Just ask Brad Pitt.

This weekend, audiences will find this cinema heartthrob in full silly mode in the Coen brothers’ spy spoof “Burn After Reading.” He’s been cultivating silliness for a long time.

Almost from the weekend in 1991 when movie goers flocked to the opening of “Thelma & Louise” and laid eyes on Pitt as a young, charming, impossibly sexy cowpoke, this Springfield, Mo., native and former University of Missouri student was marked as the guy women want to look at and guys want to be.

Pitt has been smart enough to run with that, to make sure that every once in a while he shows up on screen as a sexy hunk. Roles like that are his money in the bank.

But I can’t think of another movie sex symbol — male or female — who has worked as doggedly to defy that label at every opportunity.

Almost immediately after hitting it big, Pitt began toying with his image.

For his 1992 “A River Runs Through It” director Robert Redford capitalized on Pitt’s charm, casting him as a self-destructive small-town rogue. But in his next film, the crime thriller “Kalifornia,” Pitt hid behind a skuzzy beard and shaggy mane. And the next time we saw him, in the Quentin Tarantino-penned “True Romance,” he was even hairier in a brief performance as an emaciated drug freak. Not only was it a comic role, but the pretty dude of “Thelma & Louise” was all but unrecognizable.

In fact, Pitt has devoted much of his career to hiding behind characters that are the antithesis of the pretty boy.

He’ll grow hair. He’ll shave it off. He’ll whip it into absurd pompadours.

He’ll adopt impenetrable accents (like the Irish gypsy pugilist he played so memorably in Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch”).

He’ll portray medium-sized roles in big ensemble productions (”Babel,” the “Ocean’s” series) and knows how to exert just enough star power to make his characters memorable without capsizing the boat.

He’s not afraid to play neurotic or scary. If you haven’t seen him as Jesse James in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” go rent the DVD. Yeah, he oozes the James charisma … but he’s also certifiably mad, a paranoiac around whom no one is safe.

For every good-looking leading man gig he accepts (”Mr. & Mrs. Smith”), Pitt offers two or three unusual, unexpected performances. Sometimes he even combines the two, as in “Fight Club,” where he played Edward Norton’s sexually charged, anti-establishment feather boa-wearing alter ego.

And in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Dec. 25) we’ll see him as a man who is born as an aged adult and gradually gets younger.

Most of all, he likes playing goofy. I’d put Pitt on the short list of our best comic actors. He’s not afraid to look ridiculous … in fact he courts it.

In “Burn After Reading” we get Pitt in full funnyman mode as Chad Feldheimer, a trainer at Hardbodies Gym. Chad obtains a computer disc filled with useless information and becomes convinced it’s a treasure trove of spy stuff that he can sell to the highest bidder.

Chad likes to think he’s sharp, but his cocky pose is as phony as the blond highlights in his hair.

He’s at his most natural when doing a little funky dance of celebration to the music playing in his head (or on his iPod). He’s an infant in a tight shirt, a gum-chomping boob who might be narcissistic if he had any self-awareness at all.

When he tries to be mysterious and/or menacing, he’s so transparent that nobody takes him seriously.

But Brad Pitt the comic actor? We can take him very seriously.

Hello JP fans around the world!!!!
Wow the trailer looks good!!!Angie can play anykind of role with flying colors,she’s one of the worlds brilliant actress!!!
Can’t wait to see pics. of her w/ Papa Brad on the red carpet! I miss her terribly!!!
More love and blessing to the JoliePitt family!!!

jeffpet @ 09/12/2008 at 7:27 am

hahaha Let’s see Angelina’s craps since Brad. M&Mr smith a big hit. TGS could achive great reviews from criticist and was a good seller.AMH could gain lots of award nomination both for the film and for Angie as an actress since 2003. a Beuwolf was number one seller for more than a week and was nominated among GG’s nominee and Angie was nominated for some award for her role which JD won. KFP and Wanted are among 10 best seller and still counting and were big hits. Can someone explain which movie this poster is talking about which is supposed to be crap and can someone also xplain how can someone steal one big_a** man from his so called hot wife if he was happy in his relationship? hahahaha

183 Thank you for not copying. I hope fans will all do the same.

there was almost tears in my eyes…
must be a good film
hope to see it soon

# 188 lurking…Good Comments.

Eloise @ 09/12/2008 at 12:08 am #88 Passing Through

[I’m sorry, “Eloise”, but could you remind us again - when exactly was it that YOU became a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences? Oh…you’re NOT a member? Then STFU and go have a bowl of popcorn and re-watch your Friends dvds.]

How do you know I’m not a voting member of the AMPAS? I am an actress by trade. I know my craft.

—-

actress huh.. you should be reading scripts not blogs.. or are you Aniston, the new member of AMPAS?

Eh. Not much to go on in this trailer. I have no doubt the story is good. Clint is a genius. But what they show of Angie is not particularly remarkable to me at this point. Not to say she doesn’t nail it, but I don’t see how you can decide from what they put together here.

wow, can’t wait for this. it looks really good

Wasnt impressed. Unless she is playing and action part or a psycho she just doesnt come off as believable to me.

Laura Croft, 60 Seconds… those are more her speed. Just look sexy , move well and all will be good.

Madison r. @ 09/12/2008 at 9:12 am

You are posting this crap from the begining of this thread,when is this going to end?Don’t you get tired of posting same **** over and over again? as a matter of fact Jolie has given lots of great performance in Drama’s movies. You probably are just 12 year old girl who still can’t understand what Drama’s movies are about and you still can’t understand this kind of movie. poor thing,my bad.