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Mr. Brooks (2007)
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:16
Rotten:16
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: The setup is intriguing, but Mr. Brooks overstuffs itself with twists and subplots, becoming more preposterous as it goes along.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong bloody violence, some graphic sexual content, nudity and language.
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Detectives, Switching Roles, Thriller, Murder, Theatrical Release, Crime, Serial Killers
Theatrical Release:Jun 1, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $28,424,648
Synopsis: Kevin Costner stars as Earl Brooks, a man whose seemingly perfect family and status in the community hide an ugly secret. Brooks constantly says the plea of an addict--the Serenity Prayer--but he's... Kevin Costner stars as Earl Brooks, a man whose seemingly perfect family and status in the community hide an ugly secret. Brooks constantly says the plea of an addict--the Serenity Prayer--but he's not in the grip of drugs or alcohol. Instead, his neat little bow tie belies a man with an urge to kill. Though he's staved off that desire for two years, it has returned thanks to the efforts of his evil inner voice (William Hurt, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE). He is caught in the act by a man who calls himself Mr. Smith (Dane Cook, EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH), but Mr. Smith doesn't want to turn Brooks in. The smarmy amateur photographer wants to learn from Brooks's methodical ways and become a killer himself. Meanwhile, a tough cop (Demi Moore, BOBBY) hunts for the man responsible for deaths all over Portland while she deals with issues in her own life. MR. BROOKS presents a fascinating portrait of a man at war with himself. As the devil on Brooks's shoulder, Oscar winner Hurt adeptly alternates between menace and glee, adding to a resume already replete with varied roles. Though Costner is mostly known for playing nice guys (FIELD OF DREAMS) and charming rogues (BULL DURHAM), his performance as the tortured killer is interesting to watch, and he rises to the challenge of playing a completely different character than the kind he is known for. MR. BROOKS is an engaging thriller that goes into the fractured mind of a murderer, while also delivering an intriguing maze of multiple subplots. [More]
Starring: Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook
Starring: Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, Marg Helgenberger, Jason Lewis, Yasmine Delawari, Michael Cole
Director: Bruce A. Evans
Director: Bruce A. Evans
Screenwriter: Bruce A. Evans, Raynold Gideon
Producer: Kevin Costner, Raynold Gideon, Jim Wilson
Studio: MGM
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Release:
May 12, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- NTSC
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
- Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Dolby Digital Surround - Spanish
- Subtitles - English, Spanish - Optional
Additional Release Material:
- Music Video
- Featurette: "Murder On Their Minds: Mr. Brooks, Marshall & Mr. Smith "
- Alternate Scenes: Deleted Scenes (w/ Optional Commentary)
- Audio Commentary: Kevin Costner - Star/Producer; Jim Wilson - Producer; Bruce A. Evans - Screenwriter
Behind the Scenes:
- 1. "The Birth of a Serial Killer: A Look at the Writing of MR. BROOKS"
- 2. "On the Set of MR. BROOKS"
Trailers:
- 1. Theatrical Trailer A
- 2. Theatrical Trailer B
- 3. Previews (2)
Reviews for Mr. Brooks
The movie is so well made, and so compelling as a portrait of a man at war with himself, that, right up until the end, many people will probably be entertained by its intricately preposterous story.
Quite a few plot lines and character quandaries remain unresolved. And yet the movie makes sense as it stands. After all, one can never know what makes a psychopath tick.
You know you're in real trouble when Demi Moore's playing the most sympathetic character you have.
Please don’t tell me it was supposed to be played for laughs all along, because I don’t buy it. Too late to save it from doom, the twists and snafus in Mr. Brooks start coming too fast for the audience to absorb, and the movie turns delusional.
In Mr. Brooks, Bruce A. Evans' fitfully subversive approach to the genre, we get a few fresh takes on the psychology of serial killing.
The film emerges as a subtle commentary on a disquieting aspect of our current culture -- a commentary on the nature of a masturbatory voyeurism and how it fosters heartlessness by turning other people into objects.
I count a baker's dozen of movie plots here, a tally so impressive that the qualifier -- all of them are inane -- seems almost ungenerous.
What starts out as a delightful black comedy and social commentary ends up, at best, as a guilty pleasure where I had a hard time sorting out the intentional from the unintentional laughs.
Costner seems to be having some fun playing the respectable guy with an evil secret, but [director] Evans' murky storytelling just weighs him down. Cook has all the charisma of a misshapen mud pie.
Mr. Brooks has more tonal shifts than a Philip Glass concert, never deciding if it's a thriller, a noir, a comedy or a farce.
A classic guilty pleasure -- a great-looking, weirdly compelling thriller with two pedal-flooring performances from Costner and William Hurt.
A fertile example of the Studio Film Gone Berserk, where too many characters and too many story lines geometrically progress until a level of blissful absurdity is reached.
If it is not as sadistic as the Saw and Hostel movies, it is as malignant in its insistence on the omnipresence of evil.
The film probably tilts the balance too far in favor of Mr. Brooks at the expense of the uninspired Det. Atwood.
Mr. Brooks manages to be deeply loathsome -- no small feat for a film that's shallowly amateurish.
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