The early Burn After Reading reviews are online and they’re disappointingly mixed, with some prominent critics really not liking it at all.

Despite what the trailer suggests, Brad Pitt actually gets far less screen time than the rest, and his blackmail plot is quite swiftly gobbled up by a tale of murderous backstabbing among the social elite.

Here are some quotes:

Variety -

“Everything here, from the thesps’ heavy mugging to the uncustomarily overbearing score by Carter Burwell…has been dialed up to an almost grotesquely exaggerated extent, making for a film that feels misjudged from the opening scene… Nothing about the project’s execution inspires the feeling that this was ever intended as anything more than a lark, which would be fine if it were a good one. As it is, audience teeth-grinding sets in early and never lets up.”

Time -

“Either the Coens failed, or I didn’t figure out what they’re attempting. I must be like Harry or Osborne, pretending to a sophistication I lack. Burn After Reading is a movie about stupidity that left me feeling stupid.”

Hollywood Reporter -

“Those who relish this movie might treat it as the second coming of The Big Lebowski; those who don’t might wonder at a story in which no character has a level head.”

Guardian [UK] -

“A tightly wound, slickly plotted spy comedy that couldn’t be in bigger contrast to the Coens’ last film… Burn, in comparison, is bit of a bantamweight: fast moving, lots of attitude, and uncorking a killer punch when it can. …[It's] a light-as-fluff flipside to hardcore “insider” films like All the President’s Men, Michael Clayton or, indeed, The Insider: it paints the powers-that-be as goofy, chaotic and definitively non-sinister.”

Burn After Reading currently holds a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, from 5 reviews.

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