Coen Brothers don’t hit a home run, but they get on base.

If I worked at a gym, I would probably get involved in some crazy spy stuff too.


Coen brothers, John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, Francis McDermont, George Clooney; all these people could build a fair amount of hype. Luckily I had tempered my expectations and walked into the theater, not expecting to be wowed, but hoping to enjoy myself. I was pleased with what I got out of “Burn After Reading”. It was quirky, it was a morality tale, it was what one should expect from this kind of Coen Brother’s film.

I enjoyed watching characters that seemed outlandish and believable at the same time. Clooney is right in his zone when he takes on these roles and this was no exception. Malkovich was just angry the whole time which was undoubtedly fun to watch but didn’t wow me. Francis McDormand had hints of her character from Fargo in this film. Her motivation was to get multiple plastic surgeries to look slightly better. That would usually be obnoxious but as a credit to her talent, it came across endearing in this film.

Brad Pitt stole the show for me, my only disappointment was that he hasn’t been in more of the Coen Brother’s films. He is underrated as a comedic actor, even his guest spots on friends make me laugh just thinking about it. No one doubts his ability to pull of the occasional laugh but this movie showed his range. Just watching him process his harebrained idea made me want to rewind in the theater.

Now as a whole this movie wasn’t fabulous. I find with Coen Brother’s films, the first viewing doesn’t do it justice, they grow on you. Case and point, the first time I saw Lebowski I thought it was kind of funny. So, I will give it another shot on DVD. It felt like it dragged at times but with that when we got to the conclusion I was just plain happy. It was definitely fulfilling for me. So if you are a fan of Joel and Ethan, then catch this in the theater while you can. If not, then its worth going with friends or seeing it at home in a few months. The later category won’t love it, but I think they’ll be entertained. And that’s the idea, right? Not everything has to be “No Country for Old Men 2- Electric Boogaloo”

Tropic Thunder is exactly what was forecast.

You may remember the kid on the left in the glasses as a loser friend from knocked up, but I remember him from Almost Famous as the Led Zeppelin superfan kid.


I wasn’t going to blog about this movie because my opinion on it was simple… If you like Ben Stiller movies, and you laughed at the trailer, then you will like this movie. If you loathe Ben Stiller and think the trailer is stupid, then you will hate it. This movie is simple, kind of like Zoolander, except I liked Zoolander more. I laughed, don’t get me wrong, but it was like eating Cheerios. No one eats a bowl of Cheerios and raves that it was amazing, you just are happy to have a tasty breakfast. (Or Dinner, I won’t limit Cheerios to a single meal)

One surprise was the performance of Tom Cruise. I use to be a huge fan of Cruise, but in the last 3 years since he jumped on Oprah’s couch he’s become more and more repulsive. I walked out of the theater talking more about him than the other funny moments. It was a perfect move by Cruise; not taking himself too seriously. Only time will tell if this is a step in the right direction, or a hiccup in his pursuit of crazy. The other cameos in this movie were great. The actors making fun of the industry was the best part of this little film.

So, why are you writing a blog about this movie then? I decided to write this after reading Entertainment Weekly’s review of the film. Lisa Schwarzbaum gave this film an “A” rating. Really? An “A” for this simple little movie? Movies like Juno and No Country for Old Men didn’t earn that high of a rating according to Schwarzbaum. Is this lady just giving A’s away? My friend Danny, a high school teacher, use to lament students expectation of earning A’s because that was like a pass. Just because parents and colleges expect A’s doesn’t mean Danny would give them out for a performance that was par for the course. “C” means you hit the marks and did what was expected.

I try and rate things with that same integrity. I am calling Schwarzbaum’s ‘integrity’ into question here. I think she got it just plain wrong. Most of the time I agree with EW, but they got it wrong here. It’d be generous to give it a “B”, it was not excellent, it was Cheerios.