director
Guillermo
del Toro
screenwriters
Matthew
Robbins
Guillermo del Toro
John Sayles
Steven Soderbergh
based on
a story by
Donald
A. Wollheim
producers
Ole Bornedal
B.J. Rack
Bob Weinstein
cinematographer
Dan Laustsen
music
Marco Beltrami
editor
Patrick Lussier
cast
Mira Sorvino (Susan Tyler)
Jeremy Northam (Peter Mann)
Alexander Goodwin (Chuy)
Giancarlo Giannini (Manny)
Charles S. Dutton (Leonard)
Josh Brolin (Josh)
Alix Koromzay (Remy)
F. Murray Abraham (Dr. Gates)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 105m
u.s.
release: August 22,
1997
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
other guillermo
del toro films
reviewed on this website:
- blade
II
- hellboy
|
Most
of the aptly named Mimic, a synthesis of Alien
and Invasion of the Body Snatchers and your pick of X-Files
episodes, takes place in a dark, abandoned New York subway tunnel.
For half the movie, the only illumination comes from flashlights
or yellow glow-sticks. Bats, I suppose, will have no problem
with Mimic, but human eyes need the occasional light source.
Yes, once again I must make the illogical and highly unreasonable
demand that we be able to see what's going on. Horror
movies are supposed to be dark, but this is overkill.
Mimic is an amusing creepshow, but nothing more. Coming
from Mexican director Guillermo del Toro (no relation to Benicio),
whose previous film was 1993's elegant, original vampire movie
Cronos, that's a letdown. What distinguished Cronos
was its attention to character nuance, and del Toro shows some
of that here in the early scenes. But the script, which del Toro
wrote with Matthew Robbins and the uncredited John Sayles and
Steven Soderbergh (among others), quickly becomes yet another
haunted-house variation, with at least one boo! every
reel. You begin to appreciate the postmodern awareness of the
kids in Scream,
who would have seen Alien and known not to poke at strange-looking
pods covered in slime.
Mira Sorvino, projecting warmth and intelligence, is entomologist
Susan Tyler, who engineers a breed of insect that imitates and
exterminates city cockroaches that carry a deadly disease. Within
six months, the roach problem is solved, but a new problem is
in the works. The superbug, which is supposed to die off quickly,
refuses to oblige. Instead, it's breeding and learning how to
mimic other species -- including us. How can you tell who's human
and who's a Mimic? Well, I'd say the antennae would be the first
clue.
Susan and her husband Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam), a scientist
with the Centers for Disease Control, delve deep into the aforementioned
tunnel, a place both womblike and tomblike, where the Mimics
breed and kill (a subtext worthy of David Cronenberg: sex equals
death, fertility equals infestation). Accompanying them are a
comic-relief subway cop (Charles S. Dutton) and a bug-fodder
detective (Josh Brolin); there's also a "special" little
boy (Alexander Goodwin), who communicates with the human-shaped
bug via musical spoons and calls it Mr. Funny Shoes. Uh ... okaaay.
Which of the writers got drunk and came up with that?
The last half of Mimic is routine seat-jumper stuff, with
Mr. Funny Shoes and its many insect buddies (who have no shoes,
comical or otherwise) chomping and sliming their way through
the small cast. The set-up promises more thoughtful, Cronenbergian
scares than we get -- there's a fascinating scene in which Susan
takes two street kids on a tour through the insect world. The
potential is there for a smart, gripping thriller that draws
connections between the Mimics and the frequently insectoid human
race (why else is the buggy F. Murray Abraham in the movie)?
Instead, it dumbs itself down to a summer-movie bash, complete
with gas-main explosions. Diverting but forgettable, Mimic
is a hair (or antenna) above The
Relic, which isn't saying a whole lot. |
