Burn After Reading left the theatre laughing after WatCHING 55 ciice Bact > I have to give props again to the Coen brothers; I found this movie to be both incredibly Chloe WV tie into the theatre I really wasn’t quite —_ well done and funny. Funny in an off-side sort of way... I mean, maybe I have a twisted Bach sure what to expect of Burn After Reading. | sense of humor, which is probably true, but since when is someone getting shot in the head arts & entertainment editor knew any movie starring Brad Pitt and George funny? Laugh-out-loud funny? Hilarious, even? You'll have to see this movie to really Clooney would be worth my while, but how do understand. the Coen brothers follow up a movie like No Country for Old Men? With something quirky, dark, smart and hilarious of course. The Coen brothers’ newest movie, a dark comedy called Burn After Reading, had an extremely successful opening weekend grossing about $19.1 million; and rightfully so in my opinion. The film’s all-star cast of George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton all played their characters to perfection. George Clooney, a man who typically presents himself in a very suave and sophisticated manner, and plays characters similar to his real personality (Danny Ocean, Michael Clayton etc.), pulled off a goofy, sex-addicted ex-bodyguard named Harry Pfarrer surprisingly well. Same goes for Pitt as Chad Feldheimer, a personal trainer at Hard Bodies Gym; he’s buff and dumb and hyper. In fact, I bet in studying for his role he just spent time following personal trainers around and mimicking what they do. He was absolutely spot-on and totally cracked me up throughout the film. McDormand plays Linda Litzke, a fellow Hard Bodies employee obsessed with getting plastic surgery to find the right man, and not just another random sack-session with other internet “daters.” Swinton as Katie Cox and Malokovich as Osbourne Cox, a former CIA analyst, contrast these more “light” characters with very intense personalities (Swinton’s in her usual up-tight villain role). The movie follows a fairly simple storyline. That said, all the characters are very intimately intertwined. Katie is sleeping with Harry who is sleeping with Linda (among others) who’s blackmailing Osbourne who is trying to find out how Chad got a disk with CIA information on it and Chad is really just trying to help Linda, so on and so forth. The plot sounds confusing but it’s really not. It’s just kind of a senseless, mad “goose chase” of sorts that, as an observer, is incredibly entertaining. The film incorporates some of my favorite entertainment features such as lying, adultery, blackmail, murder and government cover stories, all of which keep you completely enthralled through the 96 minute feature. ; years ago, one of the best new shows on television was Heroes. It was an incredible 44 minutes of entertainment every Monday night. It had intriguing, deep characters that developed well over the course of the season. Heroes had one of the best villains around and a terrific storyline that had twists and turns throughout the entire season. However, the second season of Heroes didn’t exactly live up to expectations. While they had another great bad guy, they tried to package a complex, often confusing plot into just 11 episodes. The first season took its time and developed the plot slowly over 23 shows. The reason that Heroes sliced the second season more than in half was the writer’s strike that disrupted virtually all television programs. What most shows did, and what Heroes didn’t do, is re-write most of their stories into a format that would better suit the shortened TV season. Heroes just tried to cram pack a full season plotline into a half season of time. It was no wonder it didn’t work out as well as everybody thought. Plus, the second season finale was good but not great. You just can’t kill the same character in back-to-back endings. The third season is set to debut on Monday, September 22, with the title Heroes: Villains. While both the first and second seasons focused on one master villain so to speak in Syler and Adam Monroe, the third season will have multiple powerful bad guys for the main characters to battle. Again, Syler will figure prominently into the plans. Making up for the severely shortened second season, the third will encompass 25 episodes. The first 13 episodes will tell the “Villains” storyline, while the second half and remaining 12 episodes will have the slogan “Heroes: Fugitives.” While a lot of fans lost faith in the show after the second season, most, 7 Ff including me, are more than willing to give it a second chance. The magic of the first MONDAYS 9/8c season has more than ensured that’ Hopefully though, Heroes can return to its former glory and recapture the audience that has been so enthralled by it at times and so frustrated by it at other times.