Mr. Brooks

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: June 1st, 2007 (wide)

Starring: Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, Marg Helgenberger

Directed by: Bruce Evans 

Premise: Earl Brooks (Costner) is a loving family man and a local business icon. But Mr. Brooks is deeply flawed and very aware of it. He is addicted to killing. Struggling with his pathology, he tries to quit, but his alter-ego, "Marshall" (Hurt), has an altogether different idea. "Marshall" enjoys his "existence" and his "work."

[matt35mm]

"Marshall" enjoys his "existence" and his "work."

This looks "great!"  What an "amazing" cast!  I can't "wait!"

[ASmith]

Someone must have a lot of confidence in Dane Cook for him to be part of cast like that.

[The Perineum Falcon]

He must be one of the victims.

[grand theft sparrow]

HWe must be one of the victims.

[SiliasRuby]

Spoilers....

This is a great great movie. The story was captivating. There were more than a couple of scares that really made me jump. The best performance by Kevin Costner since 13 days and before that JFK and William Hurt is fantastic as always. It was good to see Demi in a decent role again. Dane Cook is surprising phenomenol as a wannabe killer. The rock music which stood out in places, but in a good way.

[polkablues]

This is a great great movie.

I don't believe you.

[The Red Vine]

I'm not a fan of Costner and it doesn't seem like this movie will change that. Unless GT gives it a rave review, I'll skip it.

[Gold Trumpet]

I've held off coment, but this is my favorite movie so far this year. I'll give Alexander Revisited the easy nod for best of the year and assume that only There Will Be Blood has a chance to beat it out, but man, I had the best time at Mr. Brooks and it's the movie I want to watch over and over again afterwords.

While watching it, all I thought about was David Mamet. He makes genre works, but has vivid writing and characters that you are almost eating candy while watching some of his films. You recognize a lot in his stories that are conventional, but his characters transcend the conventions and make it something unique. Mr Brooks is exactly like that. It has a set up that entails many conventions, but it is really a character piece. It has themes and ideas with all the characters.

The enjoyment of the story is in Costner and Hurt. Costner is the killer and Hurt is his alter ego. They plot and scheme all the way through the film. The conversations between them are so good and fluid an entire film could have been based off it. Plus the treat that Costner and Hurt are so good at the roles its easy to see that they are really enjoying it. I found myself laughing out loud at even small moments between them.

There is a lot of murder and almost an unexpected amount of gore, but the film is really based on Costner and Hurt and then the supporting characters played by Demi Moore and Dane Cook. Moore is playing the detective chasing them and Cook is the unexpected witness of a murder who wants in on the killing. Costner and Hurt know the presence of Moore after them isn't good, but they can't help but respect and like her for who she is. Yet they revile Cook who just wants in at any cost.

The reasons why they like who they like is part of the allure of the movie. It's a confidence story on what characters we like and why. Costner and Hurt are revolting for what they do, but are great characters. Moore is upstanding given her character's background and what she has to fight and Cook is just a shmuck who gets more unlikable as the story goes along. Hurt has a great line in the movie about him: "Even if I found him funny and charming I still wouldn't like him." It's a very self aware moment for the film.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg for the movie. There are so many other great things to it. One of the reasons I love it is that it defies easy categorization. I wrote an 1800 word review on it for a website but deleted it and wrote it over again because I felt I wasn't getting at the crux of the story. And now that i've written a second review, I'm still kinda wondering if I could have done better.

Art films and serious films challenge my senses and fill me with emotions and thoughts that can leave me spinning for days, but they don't appease my taste buds for enjoyment. And if they try to appease my taste buds with easy answers, my intelligence is usually offended. The movies I can watch over and over again are genre movies that know what they are and find ways to transcend it. Mr. Brooks is a perfect example of that. It's not technically as good as Ratoutille, but it's a more enjoyable genre for me and there will be no thrillers like this film for a long time. Ratoutille looks and feels like other Pixar movies. There is a formula to their releases. That's not a criticism, but just a fact. I'll get a lot of re-watch value out of the DVD for this when it comes out.

On a finale note, the film got faulted for storylines and subplots that got a little too absurd towards the end. I concur with the criticisms, but so what? Who lives and who dies and who could live or could die seems to have so little to do with what makes the rest of the film so enjoyable.

[The Red Vine]

Nice review, GT. I did finally see this movie after all. It was a fucking blast that I didn't want to end.

It's like an action B movie, a domestic movie, and some twisted psychological study rolled into one. As GT explained, the scenes between Hurt and Costner were golden. Their evil laugh in the car while waiting for the rookie was worth the price of admission alone.

[SiliasRuby]

I'll get a lot of re-watch value out of the DVD for this when it comes out.

Release Date: October 23rd 2007

[Gold Trumpet]

I'll get a lot of re-watch value out of the DVD for this when it comes out.

Release Date: October 23rd 2007

many thanks.

[Kal]

I also loved this... Costner and Hurt are great together and you can feel every situation like if you were part of it. It was the type of movie that could have lasted another 30-45 minutes and still be entertaining and keeping you excited. Excellent acting and even Dane Cook was good.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

I had no idea what this movie was about, it was just at a second run theater, so I gave it a shot. 

I can't say that I agree with any positive reviews of this movie.  It felt like regurgitations from popular movies in a very stale way.  The whole movie reeked of American Psycho cross-bred with Fight Club, which are pretty recent films to be drawing so much influence from.  This movie brought up a lot of points for each character that never got too developed, so we ended up looking at a bunch of disconnected wires.  In a movie like Zodiac, we're given the loose ends to throw even the audience off from guessing the ending.  In Mr. Brooks, everything that ever happened was predictable, so really we were just expected to keep track of so many unused plot devices.  The script felt like it was written over the course of a day by ten different people.

[SiliasRuby]

I couldn't get the coverart, but it's kevin costner's big face on it...
Title: Mr. Brooks (IMDb)
Starring: Kevin Costner
Released: 23rd October 2007
SRP: $29.98

Further Details:
Fox/MGM Home Entertainment has sent over details on the release of the recent Kevin Costner thriller, Mr. Brooks, which will be available on the 23rd of October at a retail price of $29.98. The film will be presented on DVD with an anamorphic widescreen transfer at its 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio, along with a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track in English with optional English and Spanish subtitles. Extras will include feature commentary with director/writer Bruce A. Evans and writer Raynold Gideon, deleted scenes with optional director commentary, 'The Birth of a Serial Killer: A Look at the Writing of Mr. Brooks' featurette, an 'On the Set of Mr. Brooks' featurette, a 'Murder On Their Minds: Mr. Brooks, Marshall, & Mr. Smith' featurette, and theatrical trailers.


EDIT: for DVD art.