I knew going into the movie theater that Burn After Reading was going to be stupid despite its generally widespread description as a “dark spy comedy”, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised upon exiting two hours later. Oh, it was stupid alright, but not in the way The Love Guru was stupid, or the way Twilight will be stupid (oops, too soon? Maybe I should’ve saved that sentiment for another article). Instead, Burn After Reading was a rare breed of dumb: the kind that actually makes you laugh, which is a rarity among films these days. Although, I must admit that even if the movie had been about emo kids who find a river that spawned unicorns and lead them into the land of the platypus king where all the inhabitants had feet on their faces, the Brad Pitt/George Clooney team-up alone would’ve gotten me to go see it.

Unfortunately, such high expectations in terms of the two most notable names in this movie among the general populace lead to what I found to be one of the major flaws in this movie. While Pitt and Clooney were both solid leads, anyone who was excited to see them acting together (like me) with a bit of Ocean’s Eleven nostalgia buzzing at the back of their minds will be disappointed to find that the pair had scarcely any screen time together at all short of a few fleeting moments near the end.

Other than that though, the plot was solid, if not a bit…out there, for lack of a better term. The acting was entertaining and well done; Francis McDormand plays a neurotic, self serving, and entirely ridiculous woman in search of the funds to pay for her multiple cosmetic surgeries, John Malkovitch shines as a recently retired CIA agent attempting to write his memoir with a fondness for a four letter word beginning with f, Pitt plays the most endearing idiot in the history of film with a fondness for a four letter word beginning with s, and even Clooney’s adulterous character pulls off paranoia well and manages to elicit sympathy from me despite his tendency towards lechery.

Speaking of which, there was so much adultery in this movie that at one point I thought I was watching an episode of Gossip Girl. While this doesn’t take anything away from the story, it certainly doesn’t add much to it either, except to solidify the concept that everyone in this movie is kind of a lunatic in their own special way and no one is immune from being tangled up in everyone else's undeniable insanity. Another quirk I noticed was the screenwriters’ fondness of the “profanity for giggles” play, and while the actors are actually good enough to pull it off, I feel as though that whole idea could’ve gone horribly, horribly wrong had they chosen the wrong people for these parts.

Regardless, I really did like Burn After Reading. It was by no means profound or exceedingly clever, and if you’re looking for a movie of that caliber then I’d suggest you cross this one off your list. But if you’re in the mood for some pointless dark comedy, then I’d highly recommend this to anyone who has nothing better to do on a Saturday night. Ocean’s Eleven this is not, and I probably won’t buy the DVD when it comes out, but it’s definitely worth seeing if you want some laughs without much thought.