It's been a long time — 16 years to be precise — since the water mark was set so high by The Silence of the Lambs for serial killer thrillers. And in those 16 years, there has yet to be a movie that even comes close to surpassing it. So it is fair to say I didn't have my hopes set so high when I finally got off of my ass to see Mr. Brooks.

Good thing too.

Kevin Costner plays Earl Brooks a highly successful businessman with a very dark secret. That secret, predictably, is that he enjoys killing people. And after a two year hiatus, he gives in to his more sinister side and once again the "Thumbprint Killer" strikes again. Only this time, he's gotten sloppy and left a witness. That person, Mr. Smith (Dane Cook), reaches out to him — not for money — but to join him on his next assault.

All the while, diligently pursuing Brooks is the very sexy detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore). Sprinkled throughout the movie are subplots involving Atwood's nasty divorce, a released inmate, Thorton Meeks (Matt Schulze) hell-bent on revenge, and Brooks' daughter Jane's (Danielle Panabaker) own demons.

As I had expected, I couldn't find any major flaws (or any superlatives) in the way Kevin Costner portrayed the outwardly meek, quiet Mr. Brooks. A great deal of Brook's communication is done through his eyes and through his body language. Costner didn't have far to stretch — he has the eyes and mannerisms of someone you need to keep an eye out for.

What was unexpected — and the only reason Mr. Brooks is remotely entertaining — is watching the inner dialogue Earl has with his other personality Marshall (William Hurt). Marshall is the dark, cruel side that yearns for the kill thrill. He is extremely calculating and exacting; always thinking things through and focusing on the effects of any actions. Hurt's unemotional, flat delivery is the perfect contrast to Costner's nervous, pathetic half.

Other than Hurt's performance, there is little that makes Mr. Brooks remarkable. Much of story is dragged in forty different directions which I found rather irritating. Of what worth was it to focus so much energy on the divorce proceedings of Demi Moore's character? It certainly didn't add anything of vital importance. I again asked myself the same question when presented with Jane’s dilemma. Was it spliced into the film to show that a serial killer can be compassionate about his family? Was any of it really necessary?

Anyway, for me Mr. Brooks left a lot to be desired. I would have preferred it if the movie focused more on the inner turmoil that Brooks continually battles with, rather than seeing so much frivolous shit jammed into the movie as filler. The movie would have certainly flowed better and would have provided to me a much better viewing experience. It’s a shame to see something with so much promise fail miserably. As it stands now, Mr. Brooks is a misguided psychological thriller with little thrill. Ho hum.

Nine years before the movie Ghostbusters became a cultural phenomenon, CBS aired a low-budget live-action series with a nearly identical name – The Ghost Busters – on Saturday mornings. The series lasted one season, and was all but forgotten until Ivan Reitman's wildly successful movie was released in 1984, when the show was briefly revived as an animated series (not to be confused with The Real Ghostbusters, the "official" animated spin-off from the film). Now, proving that every TV series makes its way to video eventually, all fifteen episodes of the 1975-76 Ghost Busters have been released on DVD.

These Ghost Busters were played by F Troop's Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch, with Bob Burns as their tamed gorilla, who served as the brains of the operation. Operating out of a shabby office, Spencer, Tracy, and Kong (Kong is not the ape) were regularly given Mission: Impossible-style assignments to track down and capture ghosts and monsters. Fortunately for them, it wasn't that hard to track down the ghosts, considering that they usually appeared in the exact same graveyard and hid out in the exact same castle in every episode. Live-action Saturday-morning shows are made on the tiniest of budgets, and The Ghost Busters regularly re-used the same four or five sets in every episode.

The humor in The Ghost Busters is pretty corny, with the gorilla providing most of the laughs. It's more interesting to see some '60s and '70s TV stars show up as guest spooks, most notably Jim "Thurston Howell III" Backus as the ghost of Eric the Red. Yes, Backus played Eric the Red. His role wasn't quite as dignified as his part as an extreme-right militia leader in the MST3K classic Angels Revenge, but I suppose it paid the mortgage for a few months.

The Ghost Busters DVD set features quite a few special features, including interviews with Bob Burns and producer Lou Scheimer, photo galleries, and even a full episode of the awful animated version made to cash in on mid-eighties Ghostbuster-mania. (That series is available on DVD as well.) Baby boomers with fond memories of the show will probably be happy with this set, but will modern kids enjoy it? Children are much more sophisticated about this kind of thing than they were in the 1970s, and I suspect even six- and seven-year-olds will be turned off by the moldy gags and low production values. Younger viewers will like the gorilla, though.