MovieChat Forums > Burn After Reading (2008) Discussion > Is Osborne Cox the biggest a-hole in mov...

Is Osborne Cox the biggest a-hole in movie history?


The guy is complete scum, he only talks in f-words, he is a drunk, psychotic son of a bitch with a enormous complex of inferiority, not to mention that he kills the only simpathetic character in the movie.

Is there a bigger douche in cinema? I can only think in Harry Cooper, from Night of the Living Dead, or Oits from Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. And note that these two are played by Tom Towles, because nobody can play an a-hole as good as Tom Towles. Nobody but Malcovich.

Any toughts?




Freddy Krueger without Robert Englund is like a unicorn without a horn.

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Linda Litzke is a bigger a-hole. Everybody's life was ruined and everybody who died, died because she wanted her plastic surgery. If she wasn't in the picture, everybody who died would be alive.

Linda Litzke would've killed Tom Towles in both those movies by accident. That's how heinous she was.


I love Tom Towles by the way. Not literally, just his creepy acting. Lol.

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I don't think he started out as one. I think he was once a nice (weak/wimpy) guy who everyone walked all over. And finally he just sort of snapped and deciced not to take anyones abuse anymore.

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Yeah, it was a slow build. Actually, he was the only one that wasn't bothering anybody. He started out just minding his own business.

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I think that's exactly what it is. It's very common for shy people to let people walk on them then finally erupt like a volcano so it looks like an overreaction. Shy people are also prone to alcohol and/or drug abuse.

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I felt bad for him! He gets fired, his wife is cheating on him, his wife just up and leaves him, his money is taken away. All he's got going for him is his novel which is stolen and then held at ransom. Of course he's pissed and I wasn't surprised when he snapped.
He didn't know that Ted was a nice guy--he found him in his basement snooping through his stuff, after his book has already been stolen. So he suspects the worst and he's not going to take this crap anymore.

If anything, I would say Osbourne is one of the more sympathetic characters in the movie.


And a little help comes in a little glass vial and a gun pressed against her anatomy.

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I hadn't tought like that, OutForAWalkB-tch (nice name, btw;) ). I think I'll try to watch the movie again with what you people said in mind.





Freddy Krueger without Robert Englund is like a unicorn without a horn.

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It was overboard with Ted but, I didn't think he was a bad guy. I think anyone would have been as upset, as he. Besides he's right; if you think he's a drunk, then EVERYONE'S a drunk.

http://www.cgonzales.net & http://www.drxcreatures.com

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Drunks are people too. Some can be very nice.

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He's probably the only the only character in the movie I sympathized with (except maybe JK's character, but we don't really know that much about him). I mean, it seems like the whole world is ganging up on him. He has these two idiots scamming him for a bunch of worthless information, he's been fired, his wife is cheating on him, a guy breaks into his house (again, for worthless information). You bash him for being a drunk and swearing a lot, but how would you react if all this was happening to you?

I mean, I guess he didn't have to hack a guy to death in the street...

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Osborne was a drunk before all those things happened. These events did not turn him into a drunk. His drinking was the reason for his demotion. However, I don't feel his alcoholism makes him totally unsympathetic,because he is deserving of some sympathy. He is a bit of an a-hole though. Even though his wife is a "Cold, heartless bitch" she does bring up a good point about how he quit his job (opposed to taking the demotion) with no pension or benefits, yet he feels her benefits will do him. Others are definitely bigger a-holes than Osbourne though.

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His wife was a gold digger.

http://www.cgonzales.net & http://www.drxcreatures.com

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[quote]His wife was a gold digger. [/i]

What?! His wife was CLEARLY the one who had money of her own!

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But she locked him out of his house and has stolen his account numbers and drained all the money out of them. That is very low behavior - a man could never get away with something like this but of course with women it's a double standard.

I maintain that no woman in this movie has an ounce of goodness in her, except maybe the black woman in the beginning (but we don't know much about her). Not Linda, certainly not Katie, not even Sandy as we learned at the end.

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No desire to defend the women in this movie. But to state that a man could never get away with what the wife did? What a ridiculous statement. Are you serious? Men have been doing that for hundreds of years.

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He's probably the only the only character in the movie I sympathized with (except maybe JK's character, but we don't really know that much about him). I mean, it seems like the whole world is ganging up on him. He has these two idiots scamming him for a bunch of worthless information, he's been fired, his wife is cheating on him, a guy breaks into his house (again, for worthless information). You bash him for being a drunk and swearing a lot, but how would you react if all this was happening to you?

I mean, I guess he didn't have to hack a guy to death in the street...


I couldn't agree more, I think he completely lost it at the end, of course he didn't know that Ted was a good hearted guy but he assumed he was bad because he broke into his house. Oddly enough, those two were the only real likable characters in this film. Felt bad for both of them.

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit me!"- Hudson in Aliens.

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Totally agree. He is screwed over continuously in this movie.

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I felt bad for him! He gets fired, his wife is cheating on him, his wife just up and leaves him, his money is taken away. All he's got going for him is his novel which is stolen and then held at ransom. Of course he's pissed and I wasn't surprised when he snapped.
He didn't know that Ted was a nice guy--he found him in his basement snooping through his stuff, after his book has already been stolen. So he suspects the worst and he's not going to take this crap anymore.

If anything, I would say Osbourne is one of the more sympathetic characters in the movie.


^^This. I couldn't agree more. I only felt bad for Ted & Osbourne, nearly every character in this film was unlikable, save Jeffrey DeMunn & J.K. Simmons' character and the Russian guy.

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit me!"- Hudson in Aliens.

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Exactly. (reply from the future)

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I felt for him.

He was surrounded by idiots. and they just brang him down.

he should not have let them get to him as easily.

Killing the Brad was just bad luck. Wrong place wrong time for both of them.
Neither should have been there.

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Yep. You break into someone's house you take your chances.

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brang?

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I think that's the sound of a gong. "BRRRANNNGGG!!!"

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How 'bout 'Rocky' Stallone and John Wayne. PFAH, in the purest form.

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I think anyone who studies the Balkans becomes that.

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I don't think he was even the biggest a-hole in this movie. His wife however...

That IS a tasty burger!

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I hated everyone in this movie. I wanted everyone to be shot point blank.

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Ha!

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Oh.

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Like posters above, I hated Linda alot more. The fact that she she gets to avoid a federal treason charge and gets her surgeries while he ends up in a coma just irked me.

Also, it was completely misdirected at Ted, but his line about fighting the morons struck a chord with me. He might be a drinker and a chronic swearer but I think we can relate to his hatred of all things stupid.

And I really love his modified exercise chanting. That to me was the most hilarious part in the whole film.

Formerly cactusx + Grant_Mitchell

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Osbourne was my fav character. I really felt for him...surrounded by idiots and married to a block of ice (cheating ice). I sympathized more with him than anyone else that we really got to know. Richard Jenkin's character seemed like a nice guy...but he was just, dumb. Osbourne went a little overboard but like another poster said...when you break into someone's house, you better be prepared to face the consequences. My least fav character was prob a tie between the two main women...Linda and Swinton's character. Either of them is reason enough for physical violence. What's sad is that these characters actually exist in the world. Break out the booze!


Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here.

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Not only they exist, they populate cities and offices. And they do win and get away with what they do.

my vote history:
http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=27424531

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he kills the only simpathetic character in the movie.

There's speculation on what sort of person Ted was before he started working at the gym. He lost his job as a priest for unknown reasons.

Well what use are MY brains if I'm tied up with a dumb clunk like you!

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While Malkovich's character may seem like a sympathetic character on the account that he didn't cheat on his wife, one can't overlook his arrogance, hypocrisy and other weaknesses:

His career as an intelligence analyst was obviously passed down to him (as we heard when he talked to his ailing father on the yacht).

He was self-indulgent and egotistical. He was not a high level spook, and unless his tenure in the Balkans included the Bosnian War, his "memoir" would probably be self-indulgent and boring.

He was calling other people stupid, yet he didn't keep his work in a safe place, did not know his own bank account # and didn't go through the proper legal procedures to counter his wife's actions against him.

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The secretary of his Wife's lawyer is the one who misplaced the CD. Fell out of her Hardbodies bag. The wife downloaded his stuff onto the CD preparing for divorce. It wasn't Ozzy's mistake. Everyone around him pretty much was stupid. He was a drinker and maybe boring, but he reacted how someone going through a personal shitstorm (divorce, firing, home invasion, blackmail) would realistically react.

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