Kevin Costner is over the hill. So what do formerly dazzling macho icons do as they desperately cling to the top rung of the marquee? Just ask Harrison Ford. They star in disposable foolishness like “Mr. Brooks.” It’s a weak serial-killer thriller with flashes of guilty pleasure that allows him to “stretch” his image by playing an anti-hero.
Costner was a great leading man who couldn’t really act — at least not with the character-specific nuance that made you forget you were watching anybody but Kevin Costner. This was good enough when he was a bodyguard dancing with no way out of his field of dreams. But when guys like him age, they have to depend on talent. That’s especially true when the material is as inadvertently hoot-worthy as today’s logic-defying genre piece about a murder addict, with a “Fight Club” twist.
As directed and co-written by Bruce Evans (“Kuffs”) and produced by Costner, “Mr. Brooks” is like a bad ’80s flashback. Evans hasn’t had a screen credit in more than a decade. His career, like those of his main cast members, peaked about two decades ago.
Costner’s title millionaire, Earl Brooks, has just been named Man of the Year. He has it all: a fabulous Pacific Northwest mansion, a devoted wife (Marg Helgenberger) and major professional success. So why can’t he stop killing random people for no reason, why has he been getting away with it forever, and why is his wife so clueless? And, oh yeah, why is his pregnant daughter (Danielle Panabaker) dragged into a baffling subplot suggesting that she’s a serial killer too?
The story’s gimmick is that Earl has a Jiminy Cricket conscience-from-hell named Marshall. We in the audience see him in the flesh as William Hurt. Marshall’s physical presence is meant to show us the main character’s internal dialogue — the conversation between his id and ego, in Freudian terms. Thanks to their chemistry together, the wicked scenes of euphoric homicidal strategizing between the skilled thespian Hurt (who never had to rely strictly on his charisma) and Costner are the movie’s most fun.
The narrative ratchets up when a sick wannabe slayer, played by Dane Cook, witnesses Earl at one of his crime scenes. He blackmails Earl to do a murder with him. Demi Moore has the thankless role of the cop on their trail. Her character is worth $60 million and yet still does police work. Yeah, right.
Moore registers exactly one level of exaggerated emotion in “Mr. Brooks” as the swaggering tough girl. No wonder she joins Costner here on the dust heap of 20th-century cinematic has-beens.
‘Mr. Brooks’
2/5 stars
Starring: Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, William Hurt
Director: Bruce Evans
Rated R for strong bloody violence, some graphic sexual content, nudity and language
