Mr. Brooks 2007

Today I was the delighted recipient of a press pass to Mr. Brooks via Pop Culture Intel
First let me say thanks Steve Head. You should read his movie blog and look for his other writings. OK. Kevin Costner plays a serial killer the way he plays a CIA guy in the days when the CIA was boring. Or was it the FBI. Anyway, he plays a serial killer as if there was a time when serial killers were boring. He isn't scary or even creepy, and my friend said to me, did it excite you, did you want him to kill you? And I would say yes, if I had to be killed by a serial killer, I would like it to be him because it seems like it would be the quickest and least painful choice. But don't get me wrong, I was entertained watching him. Dane Cook was barely recognizable to me, so that was weird and probably a testament to his good acting. William Hurt was the most interesting. They started him out with Voice Over and I kind of wished they had kept it that way, but he pulled it off. It was definitely a progression in the direction he started with History of Violence. Where in that movie I felt he was tacked onto a role that was written for Walken or Hopper, here I'm starting to accept and even appreciate Hurt's new career direction. The cinematography felt excessively safe. Great abduction scene. Not great shootout scene. Terrible special effects on shovel throat-cutting murder (don't let that statement mislead you into thinking there's a lot of blood/violence in the movie, because not so much although they pull a little out towards the end). Implausible numbers of serial killers in Portland, Oregon. Implausible hair on detective Demi Moore (she couldn't possibly do her job with all that long hair out loose like that). Then again most of it was implausible by definition but for me some of those little details become distracting. The best part to me was the cat and mouse between Mr. Brooks and his daughter. That could have been developed more. Oddly Mr. Brooks' character I think could have been developed more, in a way it was like his aspects just didn't really add up for me, like there was some glue missing. All in all, very entertaining, though predictable Hollywood drama-style approach to horror. But I say the more Hollywood wants to do horror, the better, please more. I may have to come back to this after I've had more time to absorb it. I actually feel like I could want to watch it again and I never feel like that, I usually hate watching stuff more than once.