Summary
Burn After Reading is an underrated gem showcasing Pitt and Clooney’s comedic timing and political satire.
The upcoming action comedy Wolfs starring Pitt and Clooney is a lighter, funnier film than Burn After Reading.
Pitt and Clooney’s successful history of collaborations make Wolfs a highly anticipated movie for fans.
Although it is not their best-known collaboration, the Brad Pitt and George Clooney movie Burn After Reading recently arrived on Netflix and it’s one of the pair’s most underrated projects. Brad Pitt and George Clooney have appeared in a string of movies together throughout their screen careers, including three outings of the Ocean’s 11 franchise. The pair will soon team up again for the exciting action comedy Wolfs, a buddy comedy about two lone wolf fixers who struggle to work together when they are hired for the same job. This makes the timing of one of Netflix’s new arrivals perfect.
Pitt and Clooney’s history of screen collaborations began in 2001 with Ocean’s 11, a remake of 1960’s Rat Pack crime comedy caper of the same name. Before the duo reunited for 2005’s sequel Ocean’s 12, Pitt and Clooney collaborated again on 2002’s satirical thriller Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. This Sam Rockwell vehicle was written and directed by Clooney, who starred in the movie and gave Pitt a small role. The duo graced the screen again in 2007’s Ocean’s 13 and had one other collaboration before both stars played small roles in John Krasinski’s 2024 fantasy comedy IF.
Burn After Reading Is Now On Netflix – Why It’s An Underrated Pitt & Clooney Movie
Clooney and Pitt’s Pitch Black Satirical Comedy Wasn’t Appreciated Upon Release
2008’s Burn After Reading is not only a great showcase for Pitt and Clooney’s superb comedic timing, but also one of the sharpest political satires of the new millennium. Since the blackly comic thriller was released only a year after the deservedly acclaimed No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading never gained the same critical attention as some of the best Coen brothers movies. However, the scathing satire is overdue a reappraisal. With a starry cast that includes Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, JK Simmons, Tilda Swinton, and Richard Jenkins, Burn After Reading is an underrated gem.
The plot follows a pair of gym workers who attempt to profit off a bitter former CIA analyst’s memoirs when they mistake his first draft for priceless political intel. This results in an increasingly silly, bloody shaggy dog story that makes a perfect companion piece to No Country For Old Men. Burn After Reading’s acerbic satirical critique of the American intelligence community wasn’t appreciated upon release, possibly due to the many lazy satire movies that flooded multiplexes after the invasion of Iraq. This is a shame since Burn After Reading is a pointed piece of political commentary that has only gotten better with age.
Why Now Is A Great Time To Watch Brad Pitt & George Clooney In Burn After Reading
The Upcoming Release of Wolfs Makes A Burn After Reading Re-watch Necessary
Since the upcoming Ocean’s 11 prequel won’t feature Clooney or Pitt, there is no better time for viewers to revisit Burn After Reading. Judging by its trailer, 2024’s Wolfs will be a funnier, less brutal comedy that leans into action, whereas the Coen Brothers effort was more interested in paranoid satire. While Wolfs looks like a lot of fun, viewers who want to see the darker side of Pitt and Clooney’s shared sense of humor will need to seek out this underrated effort instead. Those who do watch Burn After Reading will be rewarded with one of Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s best-kept secrets.
What Is Wolfs? Brad Pitt & George Clooney’s New Movie Explained
Wolfs Is An Action Comedy From The Two Iconic Stars
2024’s upcoming Wolfs traffics in some of the same themes as Burn After Reading, with a plot that centers on a mixup involving high-profile career criminals. However, where Burn After Reading was a dark satire, Wolfs is a playful action comedy by director Jon Watts. Best known for helming the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy, Watts hasn’t returned to the big screen since 2021’s massive success Spider-Man: No Way Home. Wolfs tells the story of two professional fixers who struggle to work together on the same cleanup job, only to become embroiled in increasingly convoluted gangland power struggles as the plot progresses.
Judging by the trailer, the biggest problem that Pitt and Clooney’s two fixers face is Austin Abrams’ inconvenient young tagalong. While many of Pitt’s upcoming movies are more self-serious, the trailer for Wolfs makes it clear that the two hardened antiheroes will spend much of the story ferrying around a young goofball who has gotten caught up in the movie’s drug/ crime-centric storyline. Watts’ movie looks set to contrast the mismatched character comedy between Pitt, Clooney, and their young charge with brutal shootouts, fast-paced car chases, and violent confrontations with criminals hunting the movie’s heroes.
Wolfs looks like it could blend the offbeat dark comedy of the Coen Brothers movies with the more mainstream blockbuster appeal of the Ocean’s 11 franchise. If Watts’ screen CV is anything to go by, Wolfs could be a major financial success while still maintaining a little bit of edge. Before his Spider-Man trilogy, Watts directed the acclaimed thriller Cop Car and that gripping movie proved he wasn’t afraid of darker stories. Although the first trailer for Wolfs features many laughs, it also promises plenty of gunplay, violence, and a plot centered on a drug deal gone awry.
Burn After Reading Is A Great Sign For Wolfs
The Coen Bros Movie Proves Pitt and Clooney’s 2024 Collaboration Can Succeed
Image via Sony Pictures
The fact that Burn After Reading was a critical and commercial success proves that Wolfs could be huge for both actors. The upcoming action comedy looks like more of a conventional crowdpleaser than Burn After Reading, which was too dark to become a Big Lebowski-esque cult classic but too goofy to be seen as a No Country For Old Men-style masterpiece. With Wolfs, Clooney, and Pitt can take some of Burn After Reading’s acerbic dark wit and add it to the Ocean’s 11 franchise’s successful blend of tense thrills and character comedy. This would be an ideal combination.
Brad Pitt and George Clooney Movies
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Scores
Worldwide Box Office (Via The Numbers)
Ocean’s 11
83%
$450,728,529
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
80%
$33,013,805
Ocean’s 12
55%
$362,989,076
Ocean’s 13
70%
$311,744,465
IF
49%
$138,029,000
The Ocean’s 11 movies proved that Pitt and Clooney had charisma and chemistry in spades, while Burn After Reading showed that they were surprisingly versatile. As a paranoid US Marshall and a brainless bro respectively, Clooney and Pitt departed from their usual brand of charming blockbuster hero for the Coen Brothers movie. Wolfs could learn from this, taking some of their goofy, self-effacing characteristics from Burn After Reading and adding them to the pair’s slick, cool Ocean’s 11 personae. Thus, Burn After Reading could make Pitt and Clooney’s next collaboration even more promising after years of waiting for their reunion.
Burn After Reading
Director Ethan Coen , Joel Coen
Release Date September 5, 2008
Writers Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
Runtime 96 minutes