The thread about surprisingly good performances (sorry, I am link deficient tonight) made me remember that I’d meant to start a discussion about this movie.
For anyone who has seen it, I welcome your comments. For those who haven’t, I highly recommend it. To be sure, it’s not a perfect movie. Parts of it are as implausible as all get out and if you’re a Dane Cook hater (who is actually really good in this ) you might be put off, but I say take a chance anyway.
The performances by Kevin Costner and William Hurt are definitely more than worth the price of admission.
Yep, I also enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. Had some very funny moments, as well as very dark ones. A great thriller, even if I did suspect the ending.
I enjoyed it quite a bit as well. I thought Costner and Hurt were fantastic.
I think Demi Moore’s story line wasn’t nearly as good, though. I think the movie would have been better off with a no-name as the cop so they wouldn’t feel it necessary to devote much time to the character. I didn’t help that her subplot didn’t have jack all to do with Mr. Brooks, it was just a bunch of extraneous characters floating around with no real purpose. The entire ex-husband subplot could have been left on the cutting room floor and you’d never know the difference. The escaped murderer subplot at least set up the tension of two dangerous criminals roaming the same streets.
But, the main storyline was a lot of fun, so I’d recommend it.
My husband and I saw this last night after a sneak preview of Death At A Funeral (slight but very fun) and we liked it a lot! I agree that Costner and Hurt were fantastic. They have great chemistry and the conceit of Hurt being Costner’s alter ego/split personality (whatever, it was never explained) worked for me. I just went with it.
I was also surprised at how much I liked it. It’s not a black comedy but it’s very dark with streaks of humor in it. I’m always interested when I find myself rooting for a serial killer in a film. I would never do that in real life but it’s a “safe” thing to do when you’re watching a movie. Oftentimes the bad guys are more interesting than the good guys, and that’s the case here.
I disagree completely.
Knowing that they were a couple of scumbags made it more fun when Mr. Brooks kills them and then pins the murder on Smith.
The bit I would have jettisoned was the daughter subplot. Really, she’s a what?? Give me a break. I was almost hoping that Hurt would take control and off the little bitch.
I’d never seen or heard of Dane Cook until last night while watching Mr. Brooks, so I didn’t have any preconceptions about the character. He did fine. When dealing with Demi Moore’s character, he was serious and believable and I couldn’t quite get why she’d have a hunch about him other than that the script called for it. When dealing with Mr. Brooks, he was believable enough so that you really hated him and cheered at his eventual fate.