THE MOVIE-                        3 1/2 stars out of 5

 

Burn After Reading is the latest effort from Ethan and Joel Coen (No Country For Old Men) and is one funny film. The film stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich as a bunch of misfits and sex addicts who cross paths with unpredictable results. Brad Pitt stars an an fitness club employee who can charitably be described as an airhead who discovers a disc in the locker room that he believes contains important national secrets. He shows the disc to his co-employee, Frances McDermond, a middle aged women obsessed with her sagging figure and who is looking for money to pay for extensive plastic surgery, who concocts a plan to blackmail the mid level CIA analyst played by John Malkovich, whose computer was the source of the disc. All the while this going on, the film features the sexual escapades of the George Clooney character another airhead and employee of the treasury department who appears to be having relations with all the women in Washington and who happens to be friends with the John Malkovich  character and his wife, the ice goddess, Tilda Swinton. The you know what finally hits the fan when this set of characters cross paths. The film features excellent performances from the entire cast, especially Brad Pitt who is hysterical, and features a great script and is a very enjoyable 2 hours. Recommended.

 

THE VIDEO-                        4 7/8 stars out of 5

 

Burn After Reading is encoded with AVC and is presented in it original aspect ratio of 1:85:1 on a BD 50 disc. Burn After Reading is another stellar encode from the folks at Universal who have been turning out some of the best looking Blu-Ray discs on the market. This film features a natural color palette with deep and rich blacks. Clarity and detail is excellent as well rendering in image of great depth and three dimensionality. Facial detail and background details are beautifully rendered with each pore on the faces of each actor clearly visible. The details visible in each close-up is amazing as are the background details in the walls, floors and clothing in each scene. All in all, this is another excellent looking encode from the folks at Universal.

 

THE AUDIO-                    4 3/4 stars out of 5

 

As is the case with all Universal Blu-Ray releases, Burn After Reading features a DTS HD Master Audio lossless audio track of very high quality. The only downside to the track is that it is very front heavy with sparse use of the surrounds. I have still given the track a very high score despite this drawback due to the excellent fidelity of the audio that is presented on this release. The audio features excellent dynamics with exceptional bass response. The audio track is beautifully recorded capturing very well the acoustical environment in each scene. The film captures the dialogue with stunning accuracy so much so that the actors sound almost as if they were in the room with you. While I would have preferred a more immersive sound field, the audio reproduction here is of such high fidelity, it fully rates a very high score despite the overall limitations of the sound design.

 

EXTRAS

 

Burn After Reading is BD Live enabled which enables you to access more bonus content through the web and share your favorite clips with your friends with BD Live capable players. The Extras are clearly not as extensive as some or the more blockbuster releases from Universal but are all in high def. The extras consist of a the making of featurette Finding the Burn, DC Insiders Run Amuck and Welcome Back George, a companion comedy piece focusing on the recruitment of George Clooney for his third film with Ethan and Joel Coen. Of the three, Welcome Back George is the most entertaining and well worth a look.

 

IN CONCLUSION

 

Burn After Reading is a witty and very funny film and another solid effort from Ethan and Joel Coen. This Blu-Ray release features excellent audio and video quality and is well worth a look. Recommended.