Burn After Reading

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.

Burn After Reading
The Coen brothers do criminals well and in this film they got an impressive group of actors to play "accidental" criminals in a very funny way. Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand play Chad and Linda, two gym employees who find a CD in the locker room that contains data belonging to a former CIA analyst. Assuming that someone will pay big bucks for the return of the sensitive info, they attempt to blackmail the analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich). But old Ozzy is far more concerned about his recent unemployment and impending divorce from his wife (Tilda Swinton), who's having an affair with a pinhead womanizer played by George Clooney.

The whole thing ends up feeling like kids playing a spy game but the laughs are smart and result is solid entertainment.

DVD featurettes include: "DC Insiders Run Amock — An all-star cast creates the world of Washington, DC," and "Welcome Back, George" described as a comedy piece featuring Mr. Clooney as he returns for his third collaboration with Ethan and Joel.

Two more up next so read more

Shia LaBeouf proves he's box office gold once again with the No. 1 movie this weekend, Eagle Eye, also starring Michelle Monaghan and directed by D.J. Caruso. The action-thriller performed well with an estimated $29.2 million, making it the fourth-best September debut ever. In second place with an estimated $13. 6 million came the Nicholas Sparks tearjerker Nights in Rodanthe.

Lakeview Terrace came in third place, and to my great surprise Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron (yes, you read that right), came in at No. 4. The Christian-themed flick narrowly beat Burn After Reading, which came in fifth. Who would have ever guessed that Mr. Cameron would join Mr. LaBeouf as two of the big stars of the weekend?

Spike Lee's World War II epic Miracle at St. Anna suffered from disappointing reviews (including my own) and paid for it at the box office, coming in at No. 9.

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Lakeview Terrace, a thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson, came in at No. 1 at the box office over the weekend and performed relatively well with an estimated $15.6 million. Second place went to the Coen brothers' comedy Burn After Reading which continues to also do well at the box office, earning an estimated $36.4 million over its first ten days.

Around the No. 3 spot on this weekend's box office report things start to look a little gloomy, starting with the Dane Cook-Kate Hudson comedy My Best Friend's Girl. The movie only earned about $8.3 million, perhaps a result of some harsh reviews (or maybe it was just the poster, as Cook whined, that drove audiences away).

The animated family film, Igor, came in fourth place followed by Righteous Kill in fifth. Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys and The Women rounded out the sixth and seventh place respectively, and a movie I enjoyed, Ghost Town, opened at No. 8.

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

• The Jolie-Pitt Foundation made a $2 million donation to establish an Ethiopian health clinic that helps children with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, modeled after their center in Cambodia. Brad released a statement saying they hope Zahara will take it over when she gets older. — Us Weekly
• Brad Pitt and George Clooney's Burn After Reading debuted at the top spot in this weekend's box office, earning $19.4 million. The Family That Preys came in second with Righteous Kill at third place. — BuzzSugar
• George Takei married his partner of 21 years, Brad Altman, on Sunday at a multicultural ceremony at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. — AP
• Jennifer Hudson got engaged to I Love New York 2's David Otunga on Friday night in LA; the two have been dating for less than a year. — E! Online
• Infinite Jest author David Foster Wallace committed suicide and was found dead at his house in Claremont on Friday by his wife. — AP
• Oprah is dedicating her show today to a Senate bill targeting child predators, urging people to write to their senators about the bill. — The Oprah Winfrey Show

Source

The Coen Bros. helped give the box office a needed Autumn boost with their comedy Burn After Reading, which debuted at No. 1 with an estimated $19.4 million. It was a lucrative weekend overall, actually, with many of the week's new releases doing better than expected despite a "crowded marketplace for adult-skewing films."

In second place came Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys earning $18 million, followed by the Al Pacino-Robert De Niro reunion, Righteous Kill. And despite unflattering reviews, even The Women did alright over the weekend, coming in at No. 4 with an estimated $10 million followed by The House Bunny in fifth place.

Alan Ball's Towelhead also opened and "nabbed the best per- location average of the weekend." Finally, for those of you keeping track, The Dark Knight is up another $4 million, putting its total domestic gross so far at an estimated $517 million.

Photo courtesy of Focus Features

As the opening credits of Burn After Reading blip across a satellite image of Washington, DC, viewers may find themselves wondering if they've wandered into the wrong movie — a Bourne Identity type thriller filled with high-tech secrets and evil intentions. But for every spook with high-security clearance in DC, there is a goofball at Jamba Juice, waiting for his afternoon smoothie. And when that iPod-wearing dude wanders into the tropes of a spy movie, the results are wonderfully absurd and fraught with a different sort of intelligence.

The Coen brothers have given us stories of bumbling criminals time and time again, but with Burn After Reading, the filmmakers approach the familiar theme in an entirely fresh way. The "criminals" in this case are more accidental than bumbling, their deceptions adorably mundane against an ominous, thundering soundtrack and spy-camera cinematography. For all the details, read more

The MTV VMAs may have been the talk of the town, but the Toronto Film Festival proved to be just as star-studded. Jennifer Aniston looked fabulous as usual in her mini black dress for Management, while Keira Knightley looked like royalty once again on the red carpet for The Duchess. Brad Pitt showed off his Burn After Reading and talked about how little sleep he's getting these days taking care of six kids. Dakota Fanning wowed us in her black number, looking so pretty and grown-up at the premiere of The Secret Life of Bees with costar Jennifer Hudson.

Mark Ruffalo pulled double duty for Blindness with Julianne Moore and The Brothers Bloom with Adrien Brody, while Anne Hathway looked gorgeous continuing promotions for Rachel Getting Married. Of course, it wouldn't be a festive weekend without a few parties, and Kate Hudson, Diddy, and Lindsay Lohan were just a handful of stars who had plenty of fun without any movies of their own to endorse.

To see over 70 more photos including Queen Latifah, Evangeline Lily, Paris and Benji, Alicia Keys, and tons more, just read more

If you've seen the trailer for Burn After Reading, you've seen Brad Pitt being a bumbling goofball as a personal trainer cum blackmailer. Of course, my geek eye couldn't miss that he's also constantly wearing an iPod armband! Lucky for you, I've hunted it down in case you want to look like the amazing Mr. Pitt and his first generation iPod nano (silly costuming and all).

Available at the Apple store, you can get the same version in aqua blue for $29, which is a bit more fun than the white version on Brad.

And if you haven't seen the trailer yet, definitely check it out — I also love the part where a character says "Mac or a PC?"!

It's tuxedo time for Brad and George! The boys hit the big red-carpet premiere of Burn After Reading this evening at the Venice Film Festival, dressed to the nines and ready to steal the show. Of course, all their co-stars were there as were the Coen brothers, but forgive us, this week it's all about Pitt and Clooney. It sounds like last night went that way too as the guys partied the night away celebrating being back together until the wee hours of the morning with lots of drinks to go around. It can't have been too rough of a night for Brad and George — they were looking sharp and on their game with the reporters early this morning at the photocall. Now, we'll just have to wait and hear how night number two of the guy's reunion goes down in Venice.

To see over 20 more photos of the premiere including Brad, George, Tilda, Francis, Joel, Ethan, and more just read more