Killer Costner

Earl Brooks is a model citizen. He's a successful entrepreneur, has a beautiful family and can rarely be seen without his trademark bow tie and tortoise-shell glasses. He was even voted Portland Chamber of Commerce's Man of Year. Yet Brooks has a vice, a secret obsession: He's addicted to killing. And after a two-year hiatus, he needs another fix. \nDriving this addiction is his sinister alter ego Marshall, played brilliantly by William Hurt. Creepy and pale, Marshall is the devil on Brooks' shoulder who whispers manipulative, blood-lusty thoughts into his ear. Brooks, played by Kevin Costner, fights with Marshall and even attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to curb his appetite. He stands up and admits that he has an addiction, but the others fail to catch on that last night he wasn't hitting the bottle but whacking two people.\nDespite having an insatiable fetish for killing people, Brooks remains calm and aloof throughout the movie. Costner does a good job of portraying the emotionless Brooks, coldly delivering his slightly mechanical lines. We only see twinges of attachment as Marshall forces him to burn the evidence of an attack, with Brooks whimpering as he tosses the photos of his latest victims into the flames. \nComedian Dane Cook more or less holds his own as a witness who holds Brooks over an unusual and unpredictable barrel. This was the first time I'd seen Cook outside his stand-up routines. It was a little hard to take him seriously because I kept thinking about him yelling at the Kool-Aid Man to fix the wall he'd punched through before Dad gets home from work. But if perfecting the pouty face means you've made the crossover to acting, this man deserves an Oscar. \nDemi Moore's character, a feisty detective, doesn't deliver much more than corny one-liners and girl power. \nThe features are nothing special. The commentary by director Bruce Evans and his co-producer Raynold Gideon is a lot of rambling, as they give us more production back stories than juicy motives and bits of trivia. The deleted scenes only prove they were deleted for good reason. \nThe film is dark, nodding to film noir. Yet gratuitous nudity and scenes of slasher-worthy gore underestimate the audience's ability to read between the lines. The story line has several unexpected twists, with the entire plot being fresh and original. Overall, the movie is well-done and entertaining but fails to leave a lasting impression.