Top

film

Stories

 

'Mr. Brooks'

Details

Mr. Brooks
Directed by Bruce Evans
MGM
Opens June 1

Related Content

More About

Bloody disappointing, that's what Mr. Brooksis. Kevin Costner plays a respectable Seattle businessman who kills for thrills, thanks to the goading of an imaginary friend who looks a whole lot like William Hurt. Costner's Earl Brooks is such a square (appropriate, perhaps, for a man who made his fortune in box manufacturing) that he kills all of two people in the movie's first 90 minutes or so. If only Mr. Brooks weren't trying so hard to make some point about the hereditary nature of addiction, it might have been fun. Instead we get a morality tale in which a father (Costner) passes along to his daughter (Danielle Panabaker) his killer genes and then tries to reverse the cycle of addiction, lest his little girl wind up as tortured as he claims to be. Mr. Brooks mutters to himself the Serenity Prayer ("God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change . . . ") and goes to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings (where he admits only to being "an addict"), but the device is hollow and ham-fisted—a slight gag meant to elicit an ironic chuckle, not illuminate a character so barely fleshed out he's little more than a bespectacled skeleton firing blanks at the audience's heads.

 
My Voice Nation Help
0 comments
Sort: Newest | Oldest
 

Now Showing

Find capsule reviews, showtimes & tickets for all films in town.

Powered By VOICE Places

Join My Voice Nation for free stuff, film info & more!


Box Office

  1. Iron Man 3, 72.5 mil, 284.9 mil
  2. The Great Gatsby, 50.1 mil, 50.1 mil
  3. Pain & Gain, 5.0 mil, 41.6 mil
  4. Peeples, 4.6 mil, 4.6 mil
  5. 42, 4.6 mil, 84.7 mil
  6. Oblivion, 4.1 mil, 81.9 mil
  7. The Croods, 3.6 mil, 173.2 mil
  8. Mud, 2.5 mil, 8.6 mil
  9. The Big Wedding, 2.5 mil, 18.3 mil
  10. Oz The Great and Powerful, 1.1 mil, 230.3 mil
Movie Title, Weekly Earnings, Total Earnings

Movie Trailers

©2013 Village Voice, LLC, All rights reserved.
Browse Voice Nation
  • Voice Places New York

    Voice Places

    Find everything you're looking for in your city

  • Happy Hour App

    Happy Hour App

    Find the best happy hour deals in your city

  • Daily Deals

    Daily Deals

    Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city