As a follow-up to "No Country for Old Men" for the Coen brothers, "Burn After Reading" is quite a drop off. However, it is more typical of their style of film-making. This is sort of a silly re-make of "Fargo". The movie follows a cast of characters who mesh together in the strangest tale of espionage you will ever see. Brad Pitt is the centerpiece and gives a great performance as a gym employee who ends up with a CD containing the memoirs of an ex-CIA agent (John Malkovich), which is believed to contain major national secrets. He decides, along with a colleague (Frances McDormand), to blackmail the CIA for the return of the disc with the threat to sell it to the Russians. What neither of them understand is that they know nothing of the espionage game or who they are dealing with. George Clooney is along for the ride as a philandering government employee who ends up involved with McDormand's character and, therefore, smack in the middle of this mess. The appeal to this film is the cast, led by Pitt. Pitt gives an amazing performance as a complete airhead who thinks he is about to hit it big. McDormand is great and manages to fit these Coen films perfectly. Clooney is OK, but it does seem at times that he is trying to "out-goofy" Pitt. The performance that nearly steals the movie is JK Simmons (best known as J. Jonah Jameson from "Spider-Man"), who plays the CIA chief who is completely incredulous when he receives reports on all of the goings-on. This is a quirky-funny movie in typical Coen brothers fashion, but does not meet the level of a lot of their prior work, like "Raising Arizona", "Fargo" or "The Big Lebowski". I enjoyed it, as I am a fan of the Coens and a lot of the cast, but this movie is not for everybody. Grade: C
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