Having missed this in my local cinema a friend, whose movie judgements I usually trust, lent me his DVD copy.
Finding a spare couple of hours I put it on and settled back to revel in Kevin Costner shedding his good guy image to 'play the baddie'. Now, the central concept of our Kev playing a mega- successful business man who is secretly addicted to murder I could take. I also had no problem with William Hurt playing his alter-ego - his Mr Hyde to Costner Dr Jekyll if you will. But my credibility began to become stretched when, firstly, "Mr Smith" (Dane Cook) blackmails Mr Brooks into letting him come on a murder spree with him. Then, as if that was unbelievable, we suddenly have ANOTHER killer thrown into the mix in the shape of "The Hangman" (and, of course, his torture loving girlfriend! Of course this guy just happens to be after the cop - female, with marital problems naturally (played by the dreadful Demi Moore!) for reasons... Well, lets just say he has his reasons!
OK, so by now I am find any faith in the movie beginning to become sorely tested... Oh look, now we discovered that not only is the Costner character's daughter home from college because she is pregnant, but she has also apparently killed a fellow student... WHAT!!!
On top of everything else we also have THE worst continuity ever! At some point - far too convoluted to detail here! - Ms Moore sustains a very bad cut to her head, which we see being stitched up i graphic detail, yet when we next see her - and for the rest of the film - there is not a single sign of the injury, not even a plaster!!
Somewhere in amongst all this convoluted, often poorly scripted and poorly acted mess is a decent film trying to escape! I'm not saying it doesn't have its moments - hence the 4 stars - but overall it really is a big, BIG mess!
Finding a spare couple of hours I put it on and settled back to revel in Kevin Costner shedding his good guy image to 'play the baddie'. Now, the central concept of our Kev playing a mega- successful business man who is secretly addicted to murder I could take. I also had no problem with William Hurt playing his alter-ego - his Mr Hyde to Costner Dr Jekyll if you will. But my credibility began to become stretched when, firstly, "Mr Smith" (Dane Cook) blackmails Mr Brooks into letting him come on a murder spree with him. Then, as if that was unbelievable, we suddenly have ANOTHER killer thrown into the mix in the shape of "The Hangman" (and, of course, his torture loving girlfriend! Of course this guy just happens to be after the cop - female, with marital problems naturally (played by the dreadful Demi Moore!) for reasons... Well, lets just say he has his reasons!
OK, so by now I am find any faith in the movie beginning to become sorely tested... Oh look, now we discovered that not only is the Costner character's daughter home from college because she is pregnant, but she has also apparently killed a fellow student... WHAT!!!
On top of everything else we also have THE worst continuity ever! At some point - far too convoluted to detail here! - Ms Moore sustains a very bad cut to her head, which we see being stitched up i graphic detail, yet when we next see her - and for the rest of the film - there is not a single sign of the injury, not even a plaster!!
Somewhere in amongst all this convoluted, often poorly scripted and poorly acted mess is a decent film trying to escape! I'm not saying it doesn't have its moments - hence the 4 stars - but overall it really is a big, BIG mess!