Mr. Brooks

Listen to me: trash can surprise you. So don't get all elitist about the so-called cheap thrills in Mr. Brooks.

You may enjoy this complex, psychologically daring and visually stylish noir, which has been put together by director Bruce Evans ("Kuffs") with few dull moments and virtually none of the black humor you might expect from the premise.

The movie becomes a crazy quilt of competing stories, none of them properly developed. You could cut half the major characters out of Mr. Brooks and never miss them.

Coincidences and plot contrivances pile up. 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.

A werewolf movie masquerading as a thriller, it looks like a canny attempt by Bruce A. Evans, its director and screenwriter (with Raynold Gideon), to establish a "Saw"-like franchise using the names of fading ’80s stars to lend the project a semblance of respectability.

There's no meat on this film's borrowed bones: They're polished to an exquisitely tasteful shine, but efforts to class up exploitation are pointless.

Mr. Brooks manages to be deeply loathsome -- no small feat for a film that's shallowly amateurish.

Excellent psychological thriller, with enough twists and turns to make your head spin. Costner & Hurt are terrific together, and the rest of the cast shines. Even Dane Cook gives an interesting performance. The plot is interesting and its conclusion could not have been predicted.

La grande qualité du film, c'est son méchant "héros", le tueur compulsif à ses heures perdues ! un véritable assassin zinzin, un psychopathe américain très propret et "bien sous tout rapport"... mais sans aucun "code de conduite" contrairement à Dexter, si ce n'est celui très évident de ne pas se faire prendre... Kevin Costner est certes un acteur irrégulier, inconstant mais qui sait briller le cas échéant dans certains rôles pas très nets (cf Waterworld ou Sens Unique). Il incarne ici et ainsi le tueur qu'on ne prend pas en sympathie mais qu'on ne hait pas non plus... Une interprétation subtile habilement épaulée par la petite voix dans sa tête qui prend forme sous les traits de William Hurt, joyeusement sardonique. Alors évidemment, le scénario manque de rigueur et se fourvoie considérablement avec le personnage de la fliquette Demi Moore dont l'actrice a quelques difficultés à se dépêtrer. Actrice inconstante et inégale elle aussi, elle sait pourtant de temps à autre se montrer excellente... lorsqu'elle est cinglée (Cf A Armes égales). Ce qui n'est pas le cas ici. Le film s'éparpille un peu trop alors qu'il devrait se concentrer sur sa trame principale, lui le tueur, sa fille chérie (qui fait des conneries) et l'admirateur. La fin bien que convenue -finalement- explore au moins un aspect de leur relation père-fille, un aspect psychologiquement torturé qui aurait mérité bien plus d'attention. Monsieur Brooks loupe donc le coche mais d'assez peu en définitive, ce qui nous énerve un brin et ne nous console pas non plus. Le duo Costner-Hurt vaut le détour pour sa cynique drolerie en tout cas.

Kevin Costner plays an upstanding member of the community, avid potter and caring father who happens to moonlight as a schizophrenic serial killer. Costner is fine in the role but Demi Moore, who surfaces as the tomboy detective on his trail, is badly miscast. She's presented as a grizzled veteran of the force with several shades of action hero, but when we see the character in motion it's an awkward, stiff, uncomfortable exercise. Dane Cook is bafflingly tossed into the mix, too, as a wannabe killer who blackmails his way into private lessons with the master. The comedian's misguided decision to take a serious role here does him no favors. This concept has some promise, but the script simply doesn't trust its viewers to work things out for themselves and delights in presenting, then abandoning, boatloads of trivial plot threads. Clearly written with a franchise in mind, it saves too much meat for later installments, which leaves this first chapter feeling thin and watered-down. Hammy, forced and predictable, with a **** of groan-worthy clichés, it's akin to a weak, two-hour season of Dexter.

Mr. Brooks is an uneven movie, which was an lousy attempt at creating a good psychological thriller. Kevin Costner gives a solid performance, with Demi Moore at her best as well. The psychological part of this movie was mind boggling, it was confusing, rubbish and bad. The story falls short of my expectations, but the writing is brilliant. Overall, it is a lousy thriller, that could have been something great, if it weren't for the cons listed.

The movie was great for the first 20 mins or so, but then started getting worse and worse. There were multi plots happening, it felt like the writers were running out of ideas. They were coming up with these stupid ideas left and right. Avoid this movie!