Movie Review for Mr. Brooks

Summary: Consider Mr. Brooks: a successful businessman; a generous philanthropist; a loving father and devoted husband. Seemingly, he's perfect. But Mr. Brooks has a secret--he is an insatiable serial killer, so lethally clever that no one has ever suspected him--until now. Earl Brooks is a man who has managed to keep his two incompatible worlds from intersecting by controlling his cunning, wicked alter ego Marshall. But now, as Mr. Brooks succumbs to one last murderous urge, an amateur photographer witnesses the crime. Suddenly Brooks finds himself entangled in the dark agenda of an opportunistic bystander, as well as hunted by the unorthodox and tenacious detective Tracy Atwood. Can Mr. Brooks outsmart his adversaries and conceal his shocking double life from his wife and daughter--or will someone expose his crimes and his identity once and for all?

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Kevin Carr of 7M Pictures (8/0)
            It's not that Costner is a bad actor. He's just a one-note actor... like a male Julia Roberts. An...

By John Wirt of Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) (8/0)
            Clever and engaging, Mr. Brooks contains some of Kevin Costner's best work.

By Brian Webster of Apollo Guide (8/0)
            There's a smart, tense, creepy inside-the-mind-of-a-psychotic movie here. It's just too bad that ...

By Phil Villarreal of Arizona Daily Star (8/0)
            "Mr. Brooks" never fails as compelling drama, but it's far too busy to ever settle into a coheren...

By Philip Martin of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (8/0)
            ...cops a little of the cheerfully sanguine attitude of the Showtime series Dexter , although the...

By Lori Hoffman of Atlantic City Weekly (8/0)
            ... I wish the writing had been sharper

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Marjorie Baumgarten of Austin Chronicle (8/0)
            The film is overburdened with plot elements (yet misses various continuity details).

By Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun (7/0)
            Only someone who hasn't watched TV for 20 years would think that portraying Brooks as a high-mind...

By Danny Minton of Beaumont Journal (8/0)
            Comedian Dane Cook provides the real surprise here in a brave performance that more than holds it...

By Ty Burr of Boston Globe (8/0)
            There are three movies crammed into this one: The first is good, the second is so bad it's good, ...

By Mark Caro of Chicago Tribune (8/0)
            The thing does move. To where is the problem.

By Mark Caro of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            If you broke down Mr. Brooks in terms of structure, twists and momentum, you might give it high m...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Peter Rainer of Christian Science Monitor (8/0)
            It would be nice to report that Costner's bid paid off but Mr. Brooks, aside from the low-key men...

By Russ Breimeier of Christianity Today (8/0)
            The film demonstrates the complexity of human nature and its faculties -- our sinful side is neve...

By Jules Brenner of Cinema Signals (8/0)
            Yes, it's true that before the end the fatigue meter was registering pretty strongly, but if some...

By James Rocchi of Cinematical (8/0)
            ... a nice, decent, all-American psychopath like Mr. Brooks is pretty welcome company for a few f...

By Mark Palermo of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (8/0)
            Earl Brooks is presented as an admirable killer, because he's an upperclass, educated white man.

By Cole Smithey of ColeSmithey.com (8/0)
            "Mr. Brooks" is a neat blend of satire and suspense thriller that nearly overcomes its greatest f...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net (8/0)
            The few original ideas tend to get bogged down in a plot that's slow, convoluted and even more sc...

By Boo Allen of Denton Record Chronicle (TX) (8/0)
            Interesting twist on "Dr. Jekyll."

By Michael Booth of Denver Post (7/0)
            Mr. Brooks has more tonal shifts than a Philip Glass concert, never deciding if it's a thriller, ...

By Caroline Kepnes of E! Online (7/1)
            ...sickly fascinating...

By David Foucher of EDGE Boston (8/0)
            Mr. Brooks proves an unusual, occasionally awkward blend of suspense, drama and camp that's surpr...

By Eric D. Snider of eFilmCritic.com (8/0)
            Even its most absurd ideas are tantalizingly creative and sinister, enough to make you want to se...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Erik Childress of eFilmCritic.com (8/0)
            It's a tasty stew for anyone with a macabre stomach lining. It's sense of humor is dependent on y...

By Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly (8/0)
            ...begins promisingly, but it grows steadily more preposterous as it goes along, becoming the fir...

By Ethan Alter of Film Journal International (8/0)
            As long as Mr. Brooks remains focused on Mr. Brooks, the film provides a fair amount of thrills a...

By Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat (8/0)
            Smith is ... an insufferable, motor-mouthed douchebag that the audience will be begging for someo...

By Sean O'Connell of filmcritic.com (8/0)
            The thriller is a meticulous study on the 'how' of serial killing. It just skims over the all-imp...

By Victoria Alexander of FilmsInReview.com (8/0)
            Costner’s best performance ever! An intelligent, terrific thriller with twists and kinky characte...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher (8/0)
            Serial killers are people too, with hopes and dreams and loving spouses and kids who drive them c...

By Rick Groen of Globe and Mail (7/0)
            I count a baker's dozen of movie plots here, a tally so impressive that the qualifier -- all of t...

By Eric Lurio of Greenwich Village Gazette (8/0)
            If you're sick of sequels to a sequel of a sequel, then check this out.

By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (8/0)
            Evans makes Mr. Brooks the CEO of a box factory--because who would suspect the CEO of a box facto...

By Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter (8/0)
            Overdesigned characters and situations stretch plausibility at every turn.

By Kit Bowen of Hollywood.com (8/0)
            Score one for Kevin Costner. His dark and disturbingly compelling psychological thriller Mr. Broo...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Staci Layne Wilson of Horror.com (8/0)
            A sinful cinematic experience for fans of classy, canny killers like Hannibal Lecter, Patrick Bat...

By Amy Biancolli of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
            In Mr. Brooks, Bruce A. Evans' fitfully subversive approach to the genre, we get a few fresh take...

By Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews (8/0)
            Exquisitely constructed, Mr. Brooks is a gorgeous and compelling thriller about a very sympatheti...

By David Kaplan of Kaplan vs. Kaplan (6/2)
            Costner proves that, given the right material, he's as good as anyone.

By Jeanne Kaplan of Kaplan vs. Kaplan (8/0)
            Costner is sufficiently creepy, yet incredibly down-to-earth as Mr. Brooks. I must say this is on...

By Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews (8/0)
            According to some, we live in an age of moral relativism, and MR. BROOKS, a clever script with me...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Scott Foundas of L.A. Weekly (8/0)
            The movie has the air of a project that kicked around Hollywood for years earning periodic praise...

By Prairie Miller of Long Island Press (8/0)
            The notion of guilty pleasure has never been quite so erotically literal and complicit on screen ...

By Andy Klein of Los Angeles CityBeat (8/0)
            What's interesting in Evans's approach is the low-key expression of [a] classic concept.

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (8/0)
            Preposterous as Mr. Brooks can get, it's such a well-crafted, intricately devised thriller that i...

By Kevin Crust of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            The film probably tilts the balance too far in favor of Mr. Brooks at the expense of the uninspir...

By Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies (8/0)
            Reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels, and that is flattering praise.

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Matt Pais of Metromix.com (8/0)
            There's so much unexamined rage in Mr. Brooks that the movie plays like a training video for psyc...

By Duane Dudek of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (8/0)
            A clumsy and facile pulp thriller that is never the sum total of its parts.

By Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (8/0)
            A close to great film that spirals out of control into wildly enjoyable preposterousnes, topped o...

By Ted Murphy of Murphy's Movie Reviews (8/0)
            Overall, this is an enjoyable romp -- with some pitch black comic moments and a fascinating figur...

By David Edelstein of New York Magazine (8/0)
            If our movies are any guide, we’re a nation of latent serial killers.

By Rex Reed of New York Observer (8/0)
            Please don’t tell me it was supposed to be played for laughs all along, because I don’t buy it. T...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Lou Lumenick of New York Post (8/0)
            Coincidences and plot contrivances pile up.

By Stephen Holden of New York Times (8/0)
            ...the most wooden screen performance of Ms. Moore¿s career. Looking exhausted and tense, the ac...

By David Denby of New Yorker (7/0)
            The movie is so well made, and so compelling as a portrait of a man at war with himself, that, ri...

By Jeffrey Westhoff of Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) (7/0)
            Just when it seemed the serial-killer film had been done to death, Mr. Brooks brings something fr...

By Brian Orndorf of OhmyNews.com (8/0)
            It's an odd piece of entertainment, and requires a viewer flexible enough to journey into the bel...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (8/0)
            Though it's not as smooth as it might have been and by the close has gotten too clever by half, t...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Keith Phipps of Onion AV Club (8/0)
            Here are two things to know about Mr. Brooks going in: 1) Demi Moore plays a millionaire cop, and...

By Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel (8/0)
            Intriguing but inept.

By Cole Haddon of Orlando Weekly (8/0)
            Ever wondered why movies made in Hollywood seem to appeal to increasingly dumber audiences? Buy a...

By Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews (8/0)
            Its wickedness is irresistible.

By Tyler Hanley of Palo Alto Weekly (8/0)
            Welcome back, Costner. The hit-or-miss actor who earned an Oscar for Dances with Wolves but a Raz...

By Steven Rea of Philadelphia Inquirer (8/0)
            Slickly shot, coolly edited, oozing dark, deadpan humor, Mr. Brooks finds Costner at the top of h...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly (7/0)
            A nutzoid chiller devoted to proving the strange, unseemly notion that even bloodthirsty serial k...

By Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters (8/0)
            That thing doesn't quite fit a category, it's not really chilling and only inconsistently satiric...

By Linda Cook of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (8/0)
            This ghastly concoction blends sleaze, a serial killer and sex in the sort of thing that, were it...

By David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews (8/0)
            ...the film ultimately suffers from an egregiously uneven vibe that's compounded by a distracting...

By Mark Pfeiffer of Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (8/0)
            Where the character cannot maintain well-adjusted behavior over sociopathic indulgences, the film...

By Pam Grady of Reel.com (8/0)
            The movie is a missed opportunity. It has all the ingredients of a delightfully twisted, sleek li...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews (8/0)
            Evans delivers mood, tone and acting in this seductively quiet and unhysterical film, but so over...

By Betty Jo Tucker of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (8/0)
            As psychological thrillers go, 'Mr. Brooks' ranks above average because of Kevin Costner's riveti...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (8/0)
            This is a tense and engaging thriller...

By Diana Saenger of ReviewExpress.com (8/0)
            The pretzel-like personality of Brooks is expertly weaved and salted with just a hint of compassi...

By Jim Lane of Sacramento News & Review (8/0)
            ...a bit contrived and more than a bit gimmicky...But it all works...

By Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com (8/0)
            Costner seems to be having some fun playing the respectable guy with an evil secret, but [directo...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By David Elliott of San Diego Union-Tribune (8/0)
            Mr. Brooks does work up some clammy tension. The script has bite.

By Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle (8/0)
            ...the film emerges as a subtle commentary on a disquieting aspect of our current culture...

By Jim Judy of Screen It! (8/0)
            With some plot developments that aren't smart and/or believable enough, the film might look good ...

By William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (8/0)
            ...(Costner) engenders an odd compassion that almost, but not quite, makes this outlandish movie ...

By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (8/0)
            Certainly more genuinely creepy than many recent thrillers, and the supporting cast is effective.

By Nick Schager of Slant Magazine (8/0)
            Mr. Brooks is one deliriously ridiculous movie, and a bona fide contender for status as a camp cl...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (8/0)
            Preposterous characters surround a serial killer in a strained and unbelievable story.

By Nick Rogers of State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) (8/0)
            There's an unsettling exhilaration in the way "Mr. Brooks" plows through dark waters and damns ev...

By Angela Baldassarre of Sympatico.ca (8/0)
            Despite a promising intro and some darkly cool atmospherics, the picture pushes plausibility to t...

By Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com (8/0)
            A fascinating and thoroughly unsettling exploration into the mind of a serial killer, Mr. Brooks ...

By Melissa Anderson of Time Out New York (7/0)
            [Director] Evans keeps flirting with a potentially rich idea only to surround it with indigestibl...

By Susan Walker of Toronto Star (8/0)
            Quite a few plot lines and character quandaries remain unresolved. And yet the movie makes sense ...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide's Movie Guide (8/0)
            Plays like Red Dragon reimagined by filmmakers who think they're too smart or too sophisticated o...

By Brian Tallerico of UnderGround Online (8/0)
            Mr. Brooks had the potential to be a ridiculous thrill ride, but that requires a director who kno...

By Urban Cinefile Critics of Urban Cinefile (7/0)
            There's more to every character than meets the eye and all the relationships have a twist

By Claudia Puig of USA Today (8/0)
            ...inane...

By John Anderson of Variety (7/0)
            It should provide discriminating audiences the antidote they seek to Clooneys-and-Caribbean fever...

By Robert Wilonsky of Village Voice (8/0)
            Bloody disappointing.

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Willie Waffle of WaffleMovies.com (8/0)
            delivers more of a soap opera-like story about everyone's personal lives, whether you find that i...

By Daniel M. Kimmel of Worcester Telegram & Gazette (8/0)
            This is that rare Hollywood film where you can't be quite sure where the story is going to end up...

By Susan Granger of www.susangranger.com (8/0)
            Violent and implausible, it's Costner's dark field of screams.

By David Germain of Associated Press (7/1) No reference
            When your best character is a serial killer‘s imaginary friend, you know your movie‘s in trouble.

By Jonathan Rosenbaum of Chicago Reader (5/3) No reference
            This is one of those slick, violent, ridiculous Hollywood jobs that make little sense as a story,...

By Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times (7/1) No reference
            ...Kevin Costner is irresistibly fiendish...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Devin Faraci of CHUD (7/1) No reference
            [Mr. Brooks] piles subplot upon subplot, making what should have been a taut, disturbing thriller...

By Michelle Alexandria of Eclipse Magazine (7/1) No reference
            The last decade hasn't been kind to Costner, but he returns to form here. This is a fine little t...

By Scott Weinberg of FEARnet (7/1) No reference
            A high-budget psycho-thriller that lets two of our more "sedate" leading men cut loose with some ...

By Bill Clark of FromTheBalcony (7/1) No reference
            There is an actual brain at work here, and it feels refreshing.

By Liz Braun of Jam! Movies (3/5) No reference
            Mr. Brooks has a crisp, clever script, lacings of black humour, heart-racing pacing and convincin...

By James Sanford of Kalamazoo Gazette (7/1) No reference
            Costner and Hurt's strong performances are surrounded by flimsy plotting, unbelievable sidenotes....

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Robert W. Butler of Kansas City Star (4/4) No reference
            There are flashes of near-greatness here, and the moments of dramatic power and aura of moral amb...

By Pete Hammond of Maxim (3/5) No reference
            A unique and surprising movie experience. A strong alternative to the current sequelitis plaguing...

By Jeff Strickler of Minneapolis Star Tribune (4/4) No reference
            Mr. Brooks is driven more by its characters than its plot. And several of those characters are fa...

By Nell Minow of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (7/1) No reference
            But for a movie about a guy who plans everything so meticulously, the script is a mess, with impo...

By Stephen Whitty of Newark Star-Ledger (4/4) No reference
            You know you're in real trouble when Demi Moore's playing the most sympathetic character you have...

By Mike Russell of Oregonian (7/1) No reference
            What pushes Mr. Brooks into 'silly' territory is the way co-writer/director Bruce A. Evans piles ...

                         Reviews of Mr. Brooks
By Gary Thompson of Philadelphia Daily News (7/1) No reference
            Turns out, Portland has more serial and spree killers than coffee shops -- there are still more t...

By Carla Meyer of Sacramento Bee (7/1) No reference
            Not just a guilty pleasure but a truly queasy one.

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/1) Not Reachable
            The alter-ego gimmick works nicely thanks to terrific Costner-Hurt teamwork in this gripping, com...

By Rene Rodriguez of Miami Herald (7/1) Not Reachable
            The kind of movie that rockets so far beyond the line of credibility and so deeply into the realm...

By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (6/2) Not Reachable
            After its sleek, hard-edged first hour, the second half slides into rote action-adventure scenes,...

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/1) Not Reachable
            Smart, funny and wicked... a combination I would pay to see. Mr. Brooks may not want to be bad, b...

Movie Distributors
MGM Distribution Company

Production Companies
TIG Productions
Sway Studios
Eden Rock Media
Relativity Media
Element Films

Movie Studios
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM)