Mr. Brooks
Starring: Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, William Hurt, Marg Helgenberger, Danielle Panabaker
Director: Bruce A. Evans

First off, I want to say I was a HUGE Kevin Costner fan in the 80’s and early 90’s. I guess I cannot say “was.” I am still a fan! The shear volume of great or at least entertaining movies he has made are staggering.

No Way Out
The Untouchables
Bull Durham
Silverado
Fandango
Sizzle Beach, U.S.A.

OK, Not Sizzle Beach, U.S.A, which I have not actually seen, but the rest on the list are FANTASTIC movies!

In didn’t even mention Field of Dreams, Academy Award winning Dances with Wolves, JFK, A Perfect World was a great movie, directed by Clint “Number of Oscar’s I win must match my age” Eastwood. Wyatt Earp was a very good movie. 13 Days was … (running out of adjectives…) Supertabulous (making them up now). Robin Hood was entertaining (Editor’s note: The hell it was!). Tin Cup was a very fun movie. Open Range was a Solid movie. I even thought Waterworld didn’t suck as much as everyone else did. (Editor:What about The Postman??)

Hold on, let me add that up….1….2…3….12….carry the 9….44….230…. let’s just say that’s a CRAP Load.

Have all his movies been SUPERFABULANTASTIC? No. But who’s have? Even Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart had stinkers.

(To quote Myster Lynch) Having said that…

Mr. Brooks. It was…um…an “ok” movie. I liked Kevin as the tortured serial killer with a concience (hence the “tortured”). I like Kevin as a bad guy. A Perfect
World he was VERY good. Even 3,000 Miles to Graceland he was good in. William Hurt was good playing Kevin’s “Dark side.”

Think of this as another Kevin Costner “old, going to retire, grizzled man forced to train a new, up and comer” themed movie like “Bull Durham,” and…well, that’s the only one I can think of at the moment (The one flick with Ashton Kutcher was another).

OK, think of Mr. Brooks as a Bull Durham type movie, but instead of Baseball Catcher, he’s a serial killer! I like that idea, but somewhere between concept and execution (no pun intended), something went horribly wrong.

It was sort of a jumbled mess of a hardworking father and husband, who happens to be a serial killer, who’s daughter has some MAJOR issues(she may has caught that wacky serial killer gene) and the cop chasing him also has her personal (Divorce) and professional (a different serial killer is trying to kill her) problems. Add on to THAT yet ANOTHER serial killer wants him to show him the ropes of the business or he’ll turn him in! It’s not easy being a father/husband/mentor/serial killer/wage earner. Does Hallmark have a card for that demographic?

Randy Otteson
For more reviews from Randy, and the rest of the Crimespree crew, check out the index of reviews.