Mimic

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA)

Reviewed by: Douglas A. Sirman
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating:	Very Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:	Adults
Genre:	Horror
Length:	115 min.
Year of Release:	1997
USA Release:

Featuring	Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Josh Brolin, Charles Dutton, Giancarlo Giannini
Director	Guillermo del Toro
Producer
Distributor	Dimension Films, a division of The Weinstein Company

Creepies and crawlies and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the subways. If you’re bowled over by bugs and gross-out special effects, and not bothered by gratuitous profanity and dismembered children this creature-feature may be for you. Otherwise, don’t waste your time.

“Mimic” is yet another story of science gone bad. Entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) creates a species of insect through genetic manipulation which kills cockroaches, the carriers of a deadly disease killing the children of New York City. The bug, interestingly named the “Judas Bug” is engineered to die within six months of being released. Guess what? It doesn't! Instead, it “evolves” rapidly into man-sized proportions with an ability to approximate or “mimic” the appearance of a human. Trapped in abandoned subway tunnels which serve as a home for the Judas species, Dr. Tyler, her husband Dr. Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam), subway cop Leonard (Charles S. Dutton), CDC assistant Josh (Josh Brolin), and Italian stereotype Giancarlo Giannini race against time to destroy the bugs before the bugs destroy us. Will they make it? You bet your sequels they will!

With opening credits reminiscent of the hideously nihilistic “Seven”, the viewer is forewarned that we are not about to be treated to a sunny tale of adversity overcome. Filmed literally and figuratively in the dark, “Mimic” is jam-packed with nifty special effects, appalling profanity, passable character development, gore, unformed (or uninformed) religious allegory, and lots and lots of gross, icky bug-guts.

Sorvino and Northam are “OK”. Dutton plays the same character he did in “Alien 3”, only this time in uniform. Only five minutes into the film and you’ll figure out that Brolin will be an hors d'ourve. And that’s really the problem. Director “of the bull” (and that’s the truth) is unable to generate any real suspense and so relies heavily on standard shock shots. Apparently, Mr. del Toro hopes that the viewer will be too startled to realize that there’s nothing of worth here. In truth, at the end of the film, the viewer may be startled to realize that they’ve just blown seven bucks on nothing.

There’s no specific anti-Christian agenda here. Just an ugly, ugly movie. Not recommended.

I’ve seen better and scarier horror movies than this. Mimic is overrated. All the critics love it but I thought it was quite boring. And I don’t like seeing children killed in movies, either, and Mimic let us see it. Not a good movie. There is better stuff out there.

Chris Utley, age 24

Don’t even bother seeing this movie. There’s really nothing original about this awfull attempt at a sci-fi/suspense film. I was really hoping to see a good story, but the film’s plot as well as its characters were not well developed at all. And the special effects really weren’t that compelling either. The movie’s predictable and cliche(believe me… you’ve seen this movie before even if you haven't). In addition, as is too often the case with mutating bug movies, the movie’s writers slip the absolutely absurd and unproven theory of evolution into the movie’s dialogue.

Alexander D'Amico, age 24

While not a fan of the Horror genre, I actually liked “Mimic”. The violence I feel was done responsibly with no overly graphic decapitations and impailings, (except for the bugs; better them than us!). What makes “Mimic” different from a regular horror film is that it’s of a higher quality. I actually cared for the characters involved, maintained interest in the story and saw the movie as trying to be something other than the stupid teenager slasher films of the 80's. Yes, I did find it rather disturbing to witness the death of two children, but the movie as a whole satisfied me. It’s fourth place box office take during its opening weekend, (7 million), was disappointing for a movie that should have taken a little more. It isn’t a classic, but “Mimic” wasn’t bad either.

Brian Hewitt, age 27

I saw Mira Sorvino in Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion and immediately thought of her as a good actor. But sadly, even her talents could not save this movie. The plot was very slow-moving, and difficult to pick up. Many of the plot-important lines were spoken softly and I missed most of them. One thing that bugged me was why the bugs don’t kill Mira Sorvino’s character when they take her. They killed everyone else. It just didn’t make any sense to me. The bugs, themselves were interesting, but not shown as much as I thought they would. I think this one is a renter. There’s nothing spectacular in it that needs to be seen on the big screen.

Peter Wright, age 21

…The JESUS SAVES sign is bothersome as it is used frequently as well as obviously. Why?? To show Jesus as a spiritual but not physical hope OR to show that only superstitious old men carrying rosary beads believe in such nonsense?? It was an intentional message any way one looks at it… Guess who the victims are???

At least Spielberg lamented and debated over bypassing the unwritten taboo on killing off a dog in a non-slasher movie, these producers bump off KIDS AND A DOG!!!… This is desnsitization pushed to the limit!! In the past it was only the trashy slasher garbage flicks that brought us teen and doggie deaths NOT an action/sci-fi movie. TASTELESSNESS MAXED OUT!

The characters are not developed, so you care about no one except the PaPa played by Gianncarlo Giannini. The suspense and story moves slowly, I took several Ladies room tours for excitement, missed zilch, and finally the last 40 minutes gave some action (all predictable, but at least it was action finally). The end was as we all knew it would be. Ain’t it grand to save the world TWICE!

As Christians we must be a bit grieved by children murdered randomly for “entertainment”. There was no point or reason to break into “taboo” territory unless of course we get the implications that “city punks” lives are not as valuable—probably end up in jail anyway, right? Some guys reading this will think I’m picky or critical, but this was no masterpiece, it was not even good. G

uys did enjoy it more and were more willing to overlook a lot of the above but even they said it was SLOW and needed work. SKIP IT is my suggestion. Video rental at the most and even then I’d think twice. Also, there was a quite a bit of crude, uneccessary profanities laced throughout the film. But do not fear.

If you decide to see the movie, I did not give anything away that you did would not know from the second the show started.

Candace Holtsbery, age 30s

…one of the best opening credits sequences in years… [This film] doesn’t need a lot of storyline to get the adrenaline going. The “attack scenes”…are done very well… Sit up front for this one… The casting was done well, and all the actors do a fine job. The main characters believe in, and discuss, evolution, but then, they are scientists.

Mark Rinker