Mr. Brooks (2007) and Interview (2007) (nat)

I really liked Mr. Brooks. The basic plot is that Mr. Brooks (Kevin Costner) is addicted to killing and agged on by Marshall (William Hurt) who is sort of his alter-ego. Brooks is blackmailed by "Mr. Smith" (Dane Smith) to take him on as an apprentice as sorts. Meanwhile, trouble is brewing at home with his wife Emma (Marg Helgenberger) and daughter Jane (Danielle Panabaker). And detective Atwood (Demi Moore) is hot on his trail, sort-of. Costner is actually really accurately creepy and mechanical here and his interaction with Hurt is fantastic. They are strangely in-sync which just makes it work all the more. And it all just fits together really well. I did figure out one of the twists long before it happened but not the details of what would happen and there are some startling moments in the thriller. Definitely worth a watch, maybe a purchase.

Interview, on the other hand, is only good in comparison to Passion. Almost all of the movie is just an "interview" between Pierre Peders (Steve Buscemi), a demoted political journalist, and Katya (Sienna Miller), the hot new untalented party girl actress on a Sex in the City type show and slasher flicks. He's dismissive, she's rude, then he's in a minor car accident and she takes him to her loft. And there ends the probability of this film. What hot young actress takes the middle-aged rude journalist who didn't read any of the info on her given to him and is dismissive of her career to her loft? Anyway, the dialogue is terrible, the ideas are trite, the logic resembles something of a freshman paper. For example, we see Katya snorting coke or heroin and Pierre almost leaves the loft (for the bazillionth time)--ten seconds later, we learn that his daughter died of a heroin overdose. Another example, Pierre asks Katya what makes a man attractive, she says scars (good answer but she gives a stupid reason--"because most women have them, too")--guess who has a scar?? Pierre flashes his stomach later and he has a massive scar on his abdomen. Katya says she's good at crying and then later Pierre is shocked at her lies and faux-crying. It's only 84 minutes long but it felt longer than the over 2 hour Mr. Brooks. It's not paced well and it doesn't make much sense as a story. I didn't care about the characters. Only watch this if this and Passion are your only choices.