Mr. Brooks (2007)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Very, very entertaining.A primer on how to commit a murder and get away with it...with meticulous planning and execution.Mr Brooks uses the vacuum cleaner in the house where he commits the murder. And a plastic bag to collect the gunpowder. He also removes the bullets from his victims.Also a primer on how to blackmail should you witness and have evidence of a murder.Killing with an axe, guns, a shovel, a pair of sciccors; its all here. All in good spirit, all in "fun."Kevin Costner's acting is the very best he's done; he is so convincing that I now suspect a few suave and debonair people I know from my personal life to be serial killers.I even like Demi Moore as the cop with the great hunches and the world's fastest reflexes, but always a few steps behind Mr. Brooks' murders. Worth $60 million with a father who thought she should have been born a son. You'd figure she can afford a sex change operation. Is that why she only wears pants, never a skirt to show off her legs?Then there is Mr. Brooks' daughter. He loves her enough to kill for her, she loves him enough to kill him. Now, there is a REAL dynamic duo. ---------------------------------------- There are plot problems, of course. Mr. Smith is charged with the serial killer murders because he urinates on the floor, leaving his DNA. After all his meticulous cleanup, why would the killer now leave urine at the crime scene??Mr Smith gets caught with his gun whose firing pin has been disabled by Mr. Brooks. Would you not figure Mr. Smith might have checked his gun prior to leaving his apartment, recognizing who he is dealing with? (Mr. Brooks had surreptitiously entered Mr. Smith's apartment on a previous occasion to get an imprint of the safety deposit box where Mr. Smith is thought to have kept the original photos and digital camera card of a double murder).

Strong candidate for one of the best serial killer movies ever made. A strong mystery throughout and features some rather interesting sub-plots to boot. Don't let Dane Cook deter you from watching. It's also an interesting take on addiction and what lengths an addict will go to and the destruction created by these behaviors.

Kevin Costner plays a "cold as ice" schizophrenic psychopathic serial killer Earl Brooks in this intriguing thriller. It is several stories wrapped into one. The story of the main character who has an invisible "friend" who talks him into killing people.Then you have an insane photographer who is blackmailing Mr. Brooks into letting him tag along to watch a killing up close. Demi Moore plays a"bad ass" cop who became a cop to prove herself to her uber rich father. Then there is an escaped con who has it in for Demi & is completely out of his mind wanting to get revenge for her putting him in prison. After all of that Mr. Brooks has to cover up a murder his daughter committed in college. After all of this you have a lot of blood, a lot of killing, a lot of intrigue & a lot of creepy fun. There are even a few laughs along the way. I rate it a 4/5 or 8/10

Having missed this in my local cinema a friend, whose movie judgements I usually trust, lent me his DVD copy.Finding a spare couple of hours I put it on and settled back to revel in Kevin Costner shedding his good guy image to 'play the baddie'. Now, the central concept of our Kev playing a mega- successful business man who is secretly addicted to murder I could take. I also had no problem with William Hurt playing his alter-ego - his Mr Hyde to Costner Dr Jekyll if you will. But my credibility began to become stretched when, firstly, "Mr Smith" (Dane Cook) blackmails Mr Brooks into letting him come on a murder spree with him. Then, as if that was unbelievable, we suddenly have ANOTHER killer thrown into the mix in the shape of "The Hangman" (and, of course, his torture loving girlfriend! Of course this guy just happens to be after the cop - female, with marital problems naturally (played by the dreadful Demi Moore!) for reasons... Well, lets just say he has his reasons!OK, so by now I am find any faith in the movie beginning to become sorely tested... Oh look, now we discovered that not only is the Costner character's daughter home from college because she is pregnant, but she has also apparently killed a fellow student... WHAT!!!On top of everything else we also have THE worst continuity ever! At some point - far too convoluted to detail here! - Ms Moore sustains a very bad cut to her head, which we see being stitched up i graphic detail, yet when we next see her - and for the rest of the film - there is not a single sign of the injury, not even a plaster!!Somewhere in amongst all this convoluted, often poorly scripted and poorly acted mess is a decent film trying to escape! I'm not saying it doesn't have its moments - hence the 4 stars - but overall it really is a big, BIG mess!