Mimic / R / 1997
Director: Guillermo Del Toro Star Players: Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Charles Dutton
**1/2 out of ***** stars
Something about this movie really bugs me (pun intended). New York has been infected by a new disease which kills children. The carriers of this disease have been identified as the always misunderstood cockaroach. Etomologist Susan Tyler (Sorvino) was brought in to kill ALL the NYC roaches using a genetically engineered bug which secretes enzymes that kills the roaches after they injest it. BTW the bugs known as the Judas Breed have also been engineered to die after a few months. Sound familiar? How about this, "Life will find a way!" Three years have passed since the roach genocide and strange murders have been turning up in the streets. Coincidence? Not likely. The bugs have found a way to reproduce and grow to amazing size. They have evolved and mutated into a functional hive complete with soldiers, workers, queen and king. It only took three years for this macro evolution due to the life span of the creatures and their relatively short generational gap. Now it's up to two scientists (scientists never seem to know when they're in way over their heads), a NYC transit cop, a shoe shiner and his autistic boy to save the world. Any questions?
The story and premise was a good idea. The sub-plots, however, just dragged the whole movie and added extraneous characters. Even the autistic child, Chuy proved to be a nuiscance and tried the patience of the audience. One event that truely bothered me was the unnaturally strong emotions Sorvino's character had with the child. There were indications that she loved children and longed to have one but to be so attached to someone who she hardly had any contact with seemed contrived and pushed the audiences ability to believe the authenticity of her feelings. The bugs were well done. The creature effects were superb along with the special effects. The acting was also surprising. Sorvino played her character well as did (unsurprisingly) Dutton. However, a good idea, good special effects and good acting doesn't necessarily make a good movie. Mimic lacked a good script and although it had well developed secondary characters, they didn't prove to be very useful or very likeable. The editing was as good as it could have been but I was just one "Funny shoes" away from walking out. Less is more and in Mimic's case, they should have taken out shoe shine man and shoe shine boy. They weren't necessary at all for the progression on the story and just added 20 minutes and unbelievability to an otherwise good idea.
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