Product Details

• Actors: Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, William Hurt, Marg Helgenberger
• Directors: Bruce A. Evans
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Surround), Spanish (Dolby Surround)
• Dubbed: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: October 23, 2007
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (248 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301971345
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,327 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Mr. Brooks" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Kevin Costner as a warped serial killer, a pillar of the community whose dark side is embodied by an on-screen William Hurt? You have to admit, it sounds intriguing, right? Mr. Brooks is the vehicle for this unsavory story, and it turns out to be a lot less kicky than it sounds. Mr. Brooks is a Portland, Oregon tycoon and philanthropist whose "addiction" to murder is suddenly re-surfacing--with plenty of help from his sneering alter ego, who generally sits in the back of the car, goading Mr. Brooks on. (The other characters can't see William Hurt in all this, of course.) The unbelievably convoluted plot has Mr. Brooks confronted by a blackmailer (comedian Dane Cook) who has a surprising twist on things, and trailed by a cop (Demi Moore) who comes equipped with her own set of professional and marital woes. As if that weren't enough, when Brooks's daughter (Danielle Panabaker) comes home, it becomes clear that some traits run in the family.

The scenes with Costner and Hurt are the best stuff in the film, even if director Bruce Evans can't figure out how to play fair visualizing their presence to others. But the script, which among other whoppers make Demi Moore's character a millionaire, is just too unbelievable to stomach. If William Hurt's character provided a running commentary for this movie, there wouldn't be anything left after he got through mocking it. --Robert Horton

The Cast of Mr. Brooks

Kevin Costner	William Hurt	Demi Moore
Dane Cook	Marg Helgenberger	Danielle Panabaker

Beyond Mr. Brooks

Mr. Brooks on Blu-Ray

Mr. Brooks: Music From The Motion Picture

More from MGM

Stills from Mr. Brooks

Product Description

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 also the notorious Thumbprint Killer and no one has ever suspected it... until now.

See all Editorial Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Mr. Smith, before I was the thumb print killer, I've killed lots of people lots of different ways " October 24, 2007

By Jonny Rotten

Format:DVD

This by far is Kevin Costner's best film he has been in about 15 years. Costner plays "Mr. Brooks" who leads a double life. On the outside he is a successful businessman and loving family man, on the inside, he struggles with his addiction, his addiction to murder. For about two years he has been able to resist until he listens to his alter ego (played devilishly by William Hurt) to play again. He then goes into the apartment of a couple and proceeds to kill both of them.
The next day he is visited by Mr. Smith, who blackmails him to take him to his next killing. All the while he is being followed by a detective trying to solve the "thumb print murders" and juggles his personal life which is thrust into turmoil. His daughter "drops out of school" and is pregnant, but is that all of it? Soon he discovers she shares the same addiction and sickness as he does and out of compassion "fixes" her situation as well as his own predicament. What to do with and about Mr. Smith? Fulfilling his promise to Mr. Smith he takes him on his next job and decides he wants Mr. Smith to end his suffering and make him disappear, but is this the true end of Mr. brooks?
This one will keep you on your toes, on the edge of your seat and guessing until the end. I haven't personally seen a film executed this well in many years, by far the best Costner has done in a decade, and I wish he would do more films of this caliber more often. A great script, cast and great performances played deliciously by both Costner and Hurt. This one is not to be missed, and I promise you won't be disappointed.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars nice spin on the serial killer formula June 3, 2007

By Roland E. Zwick

***1/2

Bruce A. Evans' "Mr. Brooks" deserves praise for at least bringing a certain degree of freshness to the well-worn serial-killer genre.

Kevin Costner portrays Earl Brooks, a devoted husband and father and the recent recipient of the Man of the Year Award from the city of Portland, Oregon for his work as a successful businessman. He also just happens to be a cold-blooded murderer, known to the media and the law enforcement community as the Fingerprint Killer, so named because he leaves that telltale sign behind at each of his crime scenes (we must assume it is not his own fingerprint, although the script never actually spells that out for us). As the movie opens, Brooks hasn't killed anyone for two years, having chosen to resist the temptation by attending AA meetings and focusing on his wife and daughter. However, lately, Brooks has begun to succumb to the pull of his "addiction," once again allowing his darker angel to lure and goad him into seeking out unsuspecting victims as a means of alleviating the pressure.

What separates "Mr. Brooks" from all other previous serial-killer thrillers is that it has chosen to actually incarnate that bad angel on screen in the form of an unnerving William Hurt, who appears by Brooks' side at strategic moments in the movie to advise, berate and commiserate with Brooks as he contemplates his next homicidal action. Generally, in these movies, we rarely get a sense of the intense mental struggle taking place within the deeply disturbed, psychotic mind of the killer. Through the use of Hurt's character (referred to by Brooks as Marshall), however, the writers, Evans and Raynold Gideon, are able to verbalize that conflict and show us the two warring factions co-existing within this single warped psyche. Despite the absurdity of it, Brooks truly believes that his "condition" can be "cured" if he regularly and faithfully attends a self-help group for alcoholics. Thus, against our better judgment, perhaps, we find ourselves almost feeling sorry for the man, a position one rarely finds oneself in in a tale such as this one.

The complex plot also includes a wannabe young killer (Dane Cook) who blackmails Brooks into taking him out on his next killing spree; an expert homicide investigator (Demi Moore) who was investigating the Fingerprint Killer case until the trail turned cold; and Brooks' own college-aged daughter, Jane (Danielle Panabaker), who may have inherited her dad's killer "gene" and might just possibly have a murder or two of her own to account for.

The storyline may not always pass the credibility threshold (particularly in the suggestion that psychosis might have a genetic component and can be passed down from generation to generation), but the cleverness of the approach and the genuine creepiness of many of the scenes go a long way towards mitigating the imperfections. Moreover, Costner, Hurt, Moore and Cook give spellbinding performances as the killer and the various persons and pseudo-persons caught in the bloody web he has woven.

Working as a team, Costner and Hurt bring complementary opposing qualities to their roles which, when taken together, add up to a single, well-rounded character. In a complex variation on the Jekyll and Hyde, Faust and Mephistopheles dichotomy, Costner conveys the poignancy and vulnerability of the "good" Brooks, while Hurt shows us the steely-eyed cold-heartedness of the "bad" Brooks. Yet, there are times when even those roles switch, as when Costner coldly laughs at the prospect of a victim's potential suffering and Hurt provides words of comfort to a hurting Costner.

Together, the two talented stars create a complex symbiotic relationship that lifts "Mr. Brooks" several rungs above the ordinary.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars smart serial killer; dumb cop October 25, 2007

By Viva

Format:DVD

If it hadn't been for the dumbest cop ever born (the one played by Demi Moore), this would have gotten one more star.
Anyway, Costner does a marvelous job as a tormented serial killer addicted to thrill killing while also holding down a great job and doting on his wife and daughter. The daughter, however, may be a budding serial killer herself, and he wants to save her from becoming like her father.
William Hurt also is in full creepy mode as a manifestation of Costner's dueling personality, while comedian Dane Cook plays a would-be killer who wants Costner to tutor him in how to do it and not get caught.
There is some intrusive techno music and a Matrix-like hallway shoot-out that could have been done better. However, these are quibbles. I had a bigger problem with Moore's distracting divorce battle, impulsiveness, and general arrogance.