Review of Mr. Brooks (2007) by Daniel P — 11 Jan 2013

With its 80s resurrection cast (plus Dane Cook) and a plot and a visual style more suited to primetime TV, I think a lot of viewers and critics had their knives sharpened long before bothering to watch this film - I know my expectations were low.

But what we have here is a movie that goes to some dark places, and a decent performance by Kevin Costner as a compulsive killer, and a consummate professional who hides it from his family and his colleagues incredibly.

The Cook character is interesting, too: a hobbyist photographer who takes surreptitious photos of a couple having sex in an adjacent apartment building, he unwittingly captures Costner killing them, and in an attempt to blackmail him he ends up enticed by the crimes and grows interested in taking part.

I could take or leave Demi Moore as the cop, and I didn't think her backstory (failed marriage, ex trying to get more than a fair share in the settlement) was very necessary as a subplot, and William Hurt was capable but little else as the personification of the voice in Costner's head, invisible to everyone else and urging him to keep killing.

I'd have probably liked it less if my expectations were higher, but it's no better or worse than most mediocre Hollywood divertissement; give it a chance, skeptics, you just might enjoy it.