Coen Brothers

Academy Award-winning directors Joel and Ethan Coen are taking on the oxymoron that is "clean coal." The brothers directed the spot for the Reality Campaign to "call out the coal industry on their dirty lies." The group wants to spread the message that "clean" coal is like a healthy cigarette, while also pointing out that no clean coal plant actually exists in the US.

While the Coen brothers work on the powerful PR message against clean coal, President Obama gave it a shout-out in his speech to Congress this week, calling it an environmentally friendly, and cost-effective energy source. Maybe Obama was swayed by the American Coalition For Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), which spent millions of coal industry money in advertising last year to promote clean coal.

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.

Burn After Reading
The Coen brothers do criminals well and in this film they got an impressive group of actors to play "accidental" criminals in a very funny way. Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand play Chad and Linda, two gym employees who find a CD in the locker room that contains data belonging to a former CIA analyst. Assuming that someone will pay big bucks for the return of the sensitive info, they attempt to blackmail the analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich). But old Ozzy is far more concerned about his recent unemployment and impending divorce from his wife (Tilda Swinton), who's having an affair with a pinhead womanizer played by George Clooney.

The whole thing ends up feeling like kids playing a spy game but the laughs are smart and result is solid entertainment.

DVD featurettes include: "DC Insiders Run Amock — An all-star cast creates the world of Washington, DC," and "Welcome Back, George" described as a comedy piece featuring Mr. Clooney as he returns for his third collaboration with Ethan and Joel.

Two more up next so read more

As the opening credits of Burn After Reading blip across a satellite image of Washington, DC, viewers may find themselves wondering if they've wandered into the wrong movie — a Bourne Identity type thriller filled with high-tech secrets and evil intentions. But for every spook with high-security clearance in DC, there is a goofball at Jamba Juice, waiting for his afternoon smoothie. And when that iPod-wearing dude wanders into the tropes of a spy movie, the results are wonderfully absurd and fraught with a different sort of intelligence.

The Coen brothers have given us stories of bumbling criminals time and time again, but with Burn After Reading, the filmmakers approach the familiar theme in an entirely fresh way. The "criminals" in this case are more accidental than bumbling, their deceptions adorably mundane against an ominous, thundering soundtrack and spy-camera cinematography. For all the details, read more

• Sadly, Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore died Tuesday at age 46 from injuries he sustained in an all-terrain vehicle accident in June. — AP
• Universal wants to increase Labor Day weekend grosses for Mamma Mia! by presenting Mamma Mia! The Sing-Along Edition in select theaters. — Billboard
• ABC is actually going to move forward this Fall with that male-oriented spinoff of Supernanny, titled Supermanny. — Hollywood Reporter
• Peter Jackson will collaborate with director Guillermo del Toro to write The Hobbit and its sequel. — Variety
• The Coen brothers have hired Michael Stuhlbarg and Richard Kind to star as brothers in their 1960s period black comedy, The Serious Man. — ComingSoon
• Grey's Anatomy and ER are receiving criticism by a leading Italian medical group for "teaching viewers inaccurate views on medicine" and "spreading misinformation." — The Hollywood Reporter
• Neil Young has nabbed Death Cab for Cutie and Wilco as the opening acts for his tour. — Reuters
• There's going to be a remake of the 1982 horror movie Poltergeist. — ComingSoon

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OK, now this is a movie trailer! The Coen Bros. latest venture, Burn After Reading, now has a red-band trailer (which in this case means they're using some NSFW language) and it is funny-goofy-weird-dark. Which is to say, awesome. The people in this movie are so fantastically talented, and combined with the Coens' dark and bizarre direction, this movie looks totally promising.

The trailer is a little confusing, but the IMDB plot description puts it like this: "A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it."

I could watch Brad Pitt act like a total goofball all day.

Burn After Reading opens in theaters September 12. To check out the trailer and tell me if you think there are more Oscars in the Coen family future, read more