Once again, Stephanie Zacharek hits the nail on the head with her wit, insight and brilliant writing on "Mr. Brooks," "Sicko" and "EvanAlmighty." Ms. Zacharek incisively puts into words what we can only scratch at. As soon as a movie comes out (especially the ones I know are really bad), I go to Salon.com for her review - I'm rarely disappointed.

Thanks.

Oh, pooh (or pookha). This movie is indeed silly -- but t'ain't "inadvertent." It's also funny, violent, gross, sentimental, sad, over the top, and even sometimes culturally clever. I'm not sure Dane Clark is having a good time (although he does a good pout, as is expressly pointed out in the film), but Moore and the tag-team of Costner and Hurt are clearly having fun playing straight at the edge. (The "Harvey" parallel early on popped into my head, too.) But most of all "Mr. Brooks" is a rather neat riff on werewolf mythology and the silly, funny, violent, sentimental, sad, over-the-top, cultural-snapshot, holey-plotted movies made about those poor benighted, addicted, conflicted killers -- which the movie very precisely and almost off-handedly invokes near the end.

Stephanie Zacharek is my favorite film critic. Her reviews are often more entertaining than the films she's critiquing. I saw Mr. Brooks last night at the famous ArcLight Theatre in Hollywood, and I can say that Ms. Zacharek's assessment of the movie is right-on. Demi Moore makes it fun, and she kicks ass. She breezes through the movie like the pro that she is. Watching her is like catching up with an old friend who's really come into her own. The movie was a blast and it got lots of chuckles from the audience, but I felt that the movie did intend to be ridiculous.

Did Costner direct the movie? If so then it's 4 hrs long and Coster is in every scene. And please get a voice coach already. That nasal whine is irritating.

Dane Cook is unwatchable in standup. But hey the suits said it was time to 'broaden your horizons'. Nice tour de force you did as disgusting short order cook in "Waiting". You're the second most famous guy to occasionally fuck Jessica Simpson. Kudos.

Demi Moore. What can I say. You turned surgically modified rigor into a stern gaze. Your smoky voice and $100,000 worth of plastic surgery makes clinical depression sound fun. Do you even notice that you're in some of the worst movies ever made? Maybe it's all one big Punk'd from Ashton.

William Hurt. Never was there a more famous actor who's done more small parts no one remembers or cares about. Squint, whisper. Bowel obstruction?

Not a good sign.

BTW, I'll bet that making Costner's hobby pottery was a reference to Luis Bunuel's black comedy THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO CRUZ, about a Mexican potter who wants to murder one woman after another, but they keep dying just before he can get the chance.