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Director: Bruce A. Evans Starring: Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook Synopsis: Consider Mr. Brooks. A successful businessman. A generous philanthropist. A loving father and devoted husband. Seemingly, he's perfect. But Mr. Brooks has a secret -- he is an insatiable serial killer, so lethally clever that no one has ever suspected him -- until now. Academy Award winner Kevin Costner stars as Earl Brooks, a man who has managed to keep his two incompatible worlds from intersecting by controlling his cunning, wicked alter ego Marshall (Academy Award winner William Hurt). But now, as Mr. Brooks succumbs to one last murderous urge, an amateur photographer (Dane Cook) witnesses the crime. Suddenly Brooks finds himself entangled in the dark agenda of an opportunistic bystander, as well as hunted by the unorthodox and tenacious detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore). Can Mr. Brooks outsmart his adversaries and conceal his shocking double life from his wife (Marg Helgenberger) and daughter (Danielle Panabaker) or will someone expose his crimes and his identity once and for all in this unpredictable and electrifying new thriller. Impressions: This is one of the best psychological thrillers that I've ever seen. The story is easy to follow but still very interesting. William Hurt plays Costner's inner-voice incredibly well and the scenes where they converse with each other are the best in the movie. Costner and Moore also give strong performances, along the lines of what you would expect from two veteran actors like themselves. I was actually surprised at how well Dane Cook performed. For not having done a drama/thriller movie before, I think he did a pretty good job and I don't think he detracted from the movie at all. Another great aspect of the movie was the audio, especially the gunshots. Normally in movies, gunshots sound fake and are much weaker than in real life. Not here. When a gun is fired in this movie, you feel it; it's as if the gun is right in front of you. The only cons to the movie I found were the plot lines. There are four major stories in this film; Mr. Brooks and himself, Mr. Brooks and the police, Mr. Brooks and Dane Cook and Mr. Brooks and his daughter. I think all were handled and intertwined very well, though I could see how others may find fault here. Overall, a very good movie that I would highly recommend seeing if you're at all a fan of psychological thrillers. Rating: 5/5 Pros: Great acting, good story, great sound Cons: Nothing major Additional Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780571/
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Jun 4, 2007 19:36
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 09:11 |
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I attended a free screening of Mr. Brooks, the same night it had achieved a suspiciously 100% rating on RottenTomatoes from advanced reviews (plummetting to 56% the next day). I expected to find an indie thriller breathing new life into the tepid careers of Costner and Moore. Instead I found just another relic of the 90's, a terribly confused action flick that completely loses its bearings. The plot is needlessly complicated. What starts as an interesting premise is quickly bogged down by a ridiculous amount of subplots and red herrings, most of which go absolutely nowhere. It's as if they ran out of ideas for Costner's character and had to pad the film with additional storylines, each injected so clumsily that it makes me wonder if this film was the victim of spastic test audiences and studio wrangling. The worst part is that all this setup hints at some insane revelation that will tie all the loose threads together, only it never comes. William Hurt is awesome, and him and Costner have wonderful chemistry together. The film would have been good had it carried on with the muted tone and interesting premise of the introduction, aided by a great soundtrack and cinematography. Instead it added more serial killers, divorce proceedings, family-rearing melodrama, detective work, Matrix-inspired hallway shootouts, and even ye olde jump scare segueing into "It was just a dream!". What a mess. Rating: 1.5/5 Pros: Scenes with Hurt and Costner, soundtrack, cinematography Cons: Moore, Costner's daughter and their respective subplots. Dumb action scenes. Cheap scares. Occasionally ridiculous stylistic flourishes. Lack of closure and coherance. General derailment of promise into mediocrity.
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Jun 7, 2007 01:50
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This movie was refreshing. Not because it was cinematic art at it's highest, but because the concept was original. This is the first "feel good serial killer" movie, as I've seen several critics call it, that I have ever seen. The plot is very multi-faceted, and some facets are a little over/under explored for my tastes, but in the end the movie is still good. Costner gives the best performance I've ever seen from him, and the team of him and Hurt is amazing. The biggest downside is that I've heard this was planned as a trilogy, which would be horrendous. Rating 4/5
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Jun 11, 2007 11:51
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Nice plot. Pretty decent acting in my opinion by both the main charecter and dane cook as well. Not really any plot holes from what i could tell. The funniest part was when Dane was waiting for him to show up on the random street and he got scared. Decent ending. I was kind of hoping for them to produce a second one but i doubt it. 4/5
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Mar 14, 2008 12:22
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I just watched this yesterday on DVD as it was recommended to me by a couple of my friends. It held my attention and was certainly not a bad movie, although not without its flaws. The biggest of which was the cop-out ending. Also, I hated Dane Cook...but I think I was supposed to, so I guess that can be forgiven. 3/5
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Aug 17, 2008 15:11
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