Bizarre situations and rapid-fire pacing combine for a wild plot-line in the off-beat spy-comedy Burn After Reading, starring Brad Pitt, above, George Clooney and John Malkovich.

Focus Features

Several readers were appalled by my five-star review for the offbeat comedy Burn After Reading (Universal, $29.98).

I suppose they were expecting something other than what they got from a film that stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand and John Malkovich, not to mention Rhode Island’s own Richard Jenkins. Maybe something more lighthearted was what they envisioned, rather than the coldhearted black comedy that brother writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen had cooked up.

The plot revolves around a missing computer disc containing the memoirs of a disgruntled CIA analyst. The memoirs are no more than rambling poppycock, but the disc, found on the floor of the ladies locker room at a gym outside Washington, D.C., sparks a wacky chain of events that includes more than one adulterous affair, plastic surgery, Russian spies, CIA spies, a hatchet murder, cyber dating, blackmail, divorce and divorce lawyers.

There are funny lines, bizarre situations and rapid-fire pacing that weave an intricate plot, setting the characters on a collision course that will leave some them in tears, some of them in anguish and some of them dead. At one point, the Coens pull the rug out from under viewers with a moment that is as shocking as the shower scene in Psycho. Often they toy with the audience, daring us to be surprised at how far they will go for a laugh. With Clooney as a loose cannon, Malkovich as a looser cannon, and Pitt as a flaky airhead, it’s no wonder some were startled by the film. But if you have a penchant for the absurdly offbeat, Burn After Reading is one to check out.

Hamlet and Jesus

Perhaps even wackier than Burn After Reading is the irreverent comedy Hamlet 2 (Universal, $29.98), about an overzealous teacher’s quest to stage a high school musical. But his dreams are way bigger than his talent. High School Musical this is not.

Steve Coogan plays failed actor Dana Marschz, who now teaches drama at a big high school in Tucson, Ariz., a place that the narrator at the start of the film says is “where dreams go to die.” Dana is not very successful as a teacher. Although he believes he is doing something wonderful, his productions, which are staged versions of hit Hollywood films, are panned regularly by the ninth-grade drama critic.

Despite good intentions, Dana’s world is unraveling. His attempts to father a child with his ex-hippie wife come to naught; his finances are so bad they’ve had to take in a boarder; he roller skates to work because his driver’s license has been suspended; the school board has dumped a bunch of irreverent teens into his class; he’s haunted by his father’s rejection of his theatrical aspirations.

Things only get worse, prompting Dana to try one final desperate attempt to stage a winning production. He thinks he has found it in Hamlet 2, a bowdlerized contemporary sequel to the Shakespeare classic, complete with Dana flying in on an overhead wire to lead the rousing production number “Rock Me Sexy Jesus.”

The script dazzles with its nonstop goofiness, which keeps piling insane situations on Dana who refuses to give up. Elisabeth Shue plays herself as an actress who has given up on Hollywood to become a nurse in a sperm bank, until she’s touched by Dana’s fervor and succumbs to his offbeat charm. Hamlet 2 is a one-of-a-kind experience.

Women get their due

With an all-star cast that includes Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Eva Mendes, Bette Midler, Candice Bergen, Carrie Fisher, Cloris Leachman and Jada Pinkett Smith, one might have thought Diane English’s update of the 1939 catty The Women (Warner, $28.98) would have been more of a success.

The wit and droll put-downs of the 1939 film are intact in the script by writer-director English, best known as the creator of TV’s Murphy Brown. But the original’s fur-flying, gnashing teeth moments are missing.

Ryan plays perfect wife and mother Mary Haines, who is shocked to discover that her famous Wall Street hubby is straying with a brassy perfume saleswoman. But Mendes seems less shrewd and calculating than the way Joan Crawford played the role in 1939 and more of an opportunistic dunce who grabbed a chance when she saw it coming. Much less than the catty conniver Rosalind Russell played in the original, Mary’s best friend here is played by Bening, who tries to shield Mary from the worst … at least until she fears her own future is in danger.

True to today’s me-first sensibilities, the self-sacrificing Mary must eventually find her “me” groove this time around in a film that has a too-quick resolution of the central crisis. Still, if you’re looking to see some of our best actresses going full tilt (especially Leachman as Mary’s seen-it-all housekeeper and Bergen as Mary’s comforting mother), you’ll find what you’re looking for with these Women.

Also this week

Julianne Moore stars as a woman who marries a wealthy man and lives to regret it in Savage Grace (Genius, $24.95); convicts race to the death to win their freedom in Death Race (Universal, $29.98); a teenager in a post-apocalyptic world turns on a forbidden laptop and unleashes a nightmare in Pulse 3 (Genius, $19.97).

For children

Follow the continuing adventures of America’s favorite St. Bernard as he takes over the starring role in a movie after the actor pooch is kidnapped in Beethoven’s Big Break (Universal, $29.98).

Documentary

Filmmaker Nanette Burstein followed five Indiana high school students for an entire school year, gaining their confidence and getting access to surprisingly intimate moments as they unwind about the joys and heartaches of high school life in American Teen (Paramount, $29.99). The film is so dramatic that you may think at first that it was scripted. But this is real life.

— With wire reports.

mjanuson@projo.com