Burn After Reading – Blu-ray Disc Review

December 11, 2008 – 2:59 am - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: BD-Live, Brad Pitt, Ethan Coen, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, J.K. Simmons, Joel Coen, John Malkovich, The Coen Brothers, Tilda Swinton, Universal

has an average rating of 7.6 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
include 3 HD featurettes & BD-Live
–
– 2008
– 96 minutes
– Universal
–

Overall Verdict – Recommended

Buy it for $26.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review by: Justin Sluss —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself was both Written and Directed by The Coen Brothers, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen who last year walked away with the “Oscar” for “No Country for Old Men” and have brought us other classic films such as “Fargo” and “O Brother Where Art Thou?” to just name a few. For their latest (of many) film endeavors the two brothers went back to their comedic roots in ways similar to what they did in 1987′s “Raising Arizona“. The film takes place in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. The plot of the film involves some irrelevant CIA information falling into the hands of two gym employees who try to blackmail the former CIA agent. Little do they know he lost his job due to being an alcoholic — according to his co-workers. Little does he (the former CIA agent) know that his wife is cheating on him and about to divorce him. That’s actually how the burned disc containing his memoirs fell into the hands of gym employees.

That plot is a little bit ridiculous I know but I’ll try it from another approach in explaining the film and it’s cast without containing any spoilers. The film starts us out with a very vital character to the plot, “Osbourne Cox” (John Malkovich) who works as a CIA agent. Around the time we’re being introduced to him and his routine we’re abruptly shown him being fired for being an alcoholic and various other reasons I’m sure. Osbourne comes home to his wife “Katie” (Tilda Swinton) and lies to her saying that he “quit” his job with the CIA. We soon see her friend “Harry Pfarrer” (George Clooney) and his wife “Sandy” (Elizabeth Marvel). Little do their spouses know but Mrs. Cox and Mr. Pfarrer are having an affair. Katie tells her “lover” Harry one night after sex that she’s thinking of divorcing her husband “Ozzy” — the former CIA agent. She decides to eventually see an attorney and they suggest she get some incriminating evidence off of his computer; so, she burns a disc. It’s this disc that the whole plot revolves around in this story.

The disc doesn’t make it to the hands of the lawyer firm as expected. It gets lost at a local D.C. gymnasium called “Hardbodies” where two friends “Linda Litzke” (Frances McDormand) and “Chad Feldheimer” (Brad Pitt) get their hands on it. The owner of the gym, “Ted” (Richard Jenkins) tells them that he wants nothing to do with it. So our new friend Chad takes on the task of first figuring out what the information here is, and second who it originally belonged to. Lucky for Chad, he has friends that seem to be rather tech savvy and he finds out who the disc originally belonged to. So Chad comes along one night to Linda’s apartment and tells her the news. He suggests that they call the guy up and tell him (for lack of a better term) he has his stuff. This to anyone sounds like an idiotic idea to call up a CIA agent and tell them you have their information, even if it does turn out to be useless information, but Chad still decides to do it and even manages to talk Linda into listening in to the phone call. Our friend Osbourne Cox doesn’t seem too happy to have been awaken from his sleep by the call, nor does he seem too happy with Chad who claims he’s being a “good samaritan”. Eventually when Chad mentions the idea of receiving an award, Osbourne rages into an argument claiming he will not be blackmailed by the gym employee. Safe to say that this isn’t going as planned nor is it showing any signs of going too well.

NOTE: these are production stills, not captures

The Coen Brothers prove to have not lost their touch making unique comedic situations and dialogue. This probably won’t get them nominated for another “Oscar” but it is definitely a film the fans will enjoy. It’s not exactly a breakthrough or life-changing story but it’s enough to make you laugh at human nature and our idiotic behavior at times — namely when we’re middle aged.

NOTE: these are production stills, not captures

Video Quality on this release is 1080p in VC-1 on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Blu-ray Disc) and presented in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The video quality here comes from a 35mm film source and makes for a nice transfer to High Definition 1080p. There is obviously a good amount of film grain to be found here but it really suits the film’s visual style quite well and is by no means worth complaining about — just worth pointing out. The black level found here is solid, fleshtones are very accurate and the color palette is at times vibrant but nothing too “over the top” in terms of visual material. Keep in mind this is a dramatic comedy, afterall — not the most demanding genre of film visually. There are no real flaws to speak of here such as DNR or EE and by no means any sign of compression as it’s only an hour and a half for the film on a BD-50 disc.

“Burn After Reading” on Blu-ray Disc gives you a 35mm film to HD transfer that yes, comes with some expected film grain but also comes with a great amount of visible detail making it well worthy of a “4 Star Rating” (or higher, at times) for overall video quality. It at times does almost carry a bit more visual “pop” to it and made me almost consider a higher rating but this just doesn’t seem to be consistent enough to justify a higher rating. Some of the close-ups on actors like Brad Pitt show very much detail — little things like the tiny skin pores in the actor’s face.

NOTE: these are production stills, not captures

Audio Quality on this release is in both DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. “Burn After Reading” relies heavily on that witty Coen Brothers written comedic dialogue that you’ve come to love over the years but haven’t seen much of as of late. Safe to say the dialogue here is delivered in a superb fashion as well are sound effects which make good use of the rear channel presence. Also making good use of the rear channel presence and bass channel is the wonderful music done by Carter Burwell who has worked with the Coen Brothers on many other past films as far back as 1987 with “Raising Arizona“. There is a nice use of the 5.1 soundscape here and it definitely gets the job done. This earns a very respectable “4 Star Rating“.

NOTE: these are production stills, not captures

Bonus Materials are presented in 1080i Hi-Def video using the VC-1 coded and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo @640kbps.

• “BD-Live” is included on this Blu-ray Disc release from Universal. Currently the feature hasn’t been enabled and I’m guessing will not be until street date. When it does become active it should be the source to download new content from the studio and possibly specific content for this title. This does require the user to be on a “Profile 2.0” Blu-ray Disc Player so keep that in mind.

• “Finding the Burn” (5:31 – HD) gives your a short “making of” style featurette that includes interviews with Writer/Directors Joel & Ethan Coen, cast members George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Richard Jenkins. This features some good behind-the-scenes footage as well.
• “DC Insiders Run Amuck” (12:24 – HD) has the Coen Brothers discussing writing the parts of the characters in the film for their friends in mind. Folks like Clooney, McDormand and Jenkins discuss working again with the Writer/Directors.
• “Welcome Back George” (2:51 – HD) has the Coen Brothers discussing working with George Clooney for his third collaboration with the guys. They admit they don’t plan on giving Clooney a serious role in one of the films anytime soon.

Overall the bonus materials a short, sweet and to the point but they do still leave you a bit unfulfilled. The lack of audio commentary, more features, Digital Copy and so forth leave me only giving this a “2.5 Star Rating” overall for bonus materials. Sure, they’re in Hi-Def and that’s great but doesn’t make up for lack of quantity with nice quality.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

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