Mimic

This is a very well made horror movie! It's not a classic, nor does it tread especially new ground, but it is moody, stylish, mostly well-acted, graphic, well designed and actually creepy.It tells the story of a horrific monster that has bred in the subterranean areas of NYC's subway system. I won't bore you with the details of how this monster came to be, but suffice it to say that these plot details are interesting and when we discover what the creature REALLY is, that's a nice surprise too.Basically, the first half of the movie shows us the creature in action briefly, then all the "scientific" types urgently trying to figure out what they're dealing with, and then all the main characters converge to search the creature out within the subway labrynth. And although it's been used before, the hidden chambers of the subway system (which are REALLY extensive in this film) make for great settings for running around and hiding from a murderous monster! We watch as our band of heros are quickly reduced in size (a la ALIEN, PITCH BLACK and about 1 million other movies).The opening few scenes of the movie, which show in quick brushstrokes how years before a terrible plague threatened the children of NY (and later, the cure for that plague would lead to the monster), are TRULY creepy. The editing and cinematography, along with some terrific art direction on a low budget, throw you emotionally into the movie right away! After that, the movie is well-crafted but predictable. Although predictable is probably what one wants when seeing this sort of movie. It's like horror comfort food!The movie features some unusual casting: Jeremy Northam (the British actor most often seen in things like AN IDEAL HUSBAND, is quite convincing as a nervous, nerdy scientist...he's always good in whatever he does) and Charles Dutton are very good. Giancarlo Giannini (how did anyone think to put this great actor in this kind of movie) is actually quite moving as the father of a little boy in the clutches of our villain. Mira Sorvino is the star of the movie (which came fairly soon after her Oscar-winning role in MIGHTY APHRODITE). In recent years, she has made a lot of bad choices for roles and has become something of [an object] of jokes. However, in MIMIC she is competent (though not overwhelming) as a scientist, and certainly one would think she could have handled more dramatic roles well. Finally, poor F. Murray Abraham plays her mentor in a thankfully tiny role...it's a horribly written part (the man rants and raves about tampering with nature) and he plays it as though he was told he had one minute flat to devour all the scenery. He chews it like crazy, and we breathe a sigh of relief when he's no longer on screen.I imagine the budget for the film was fairly low, but it's a great example of how effective lighting can be. Genuine ATMOSPHERE is developed. In one climatic scene set in an old subway car, all hell breaks lose, and we realize "hey, this has gotten pretty scary!" What more can you ask of an old fashioned horror movie?Is it brilliant? No. Is it entertaining in almost every way? Yes. I highly recommend it, though probably not for kids under 15 or so. (AND STAY AWAY FROM THE "SEQUEL!" YUCK!!)

it was ok

Mimic's theatrical cut is an interesting little movie. On one hand fans of Guillermo del Toro get to see the development of his style, and see that already in 1997 he was hitting on the tropes we know and love in his style. On the other hand the movie was clearly hampered by meddling by the producers. For its Blu-Ray release Guillermo del Toro has returned with a director's cut, remastered picture quality, and a buffet of special features.Guillermo del Toro's director's cut can't clean up all the flaws created by Mimic's troubled production, but it does give us a better glimpse at what the director originally wanted. Mimic: The Director's Cut is a more streamlined, superior in many ways to its original 1997 release while still not being enough to reach the heights of entertainment of Hellboy, or the artistic intrigue of Pan's Labyrinth. It's a fairly generic plot of giant bugs living in the New York subway system, with a twist: the insects mimic the appearance of their predators. The creature design of the insects is cool. Essentially giant cockroaches that can mimic the appearances of humans from a distance, their appearance is perfectly in keeping with the creatures that would be del Toro's claim to fame in later films such as Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth. When it switches to CGI the creatures show their age, but the practical effects are worth checking out for creature lovers.Now, the special features are the real reason to buy this Blu-Ray. For anyone who has poured over the special features in the Hellboy films and Pan's Labyrinth already know Guillermo del Toro loves filling his DVDs/Blu-Rays to the brim with special features. His effusive commentaries on his films alone are worth the purchase for fans, or anyone interested in knowing more about a film's production. Even with the film's age Guillermo del Toro has brought us his typical Director's commentary, a video introduction on making the director's cut, a featurette on the director's cut, making of featurettes, deleted scenes, original marketing material, and other goodies for those who are interested in the film's history. Seriously: Guillermo del Toro has made sure his basic little creature feature from 1997 has received a better collection of special features than most mega blockbusters of recent years.So, if you're up for a fun creature feature Mimic: The Director's Cut is worth a rent. If you're at all interested in Guillermo del Toro's career, or film making in general the Blu-Ray is worth owning for the special features.

The more observant of you will have noticed a 3 disc 'collector's edition' being sold by Amazon alongside the 'director's cut'. This Italian 3 disc edition contains the theatrical edition on the first Blu-ray, the director's cut on the second Blu-ray and a third DVD disc containing some extras. The two Blu-rays containing the theatrical and director's cuts are the films and nothing more [with removable Italian subtitles]. Personally, I don't think the director's cut adds much to a film that was pretty good already. The great thing about this edition is you can choose which version you want too watch. If you're expecting the director's commentary from Del Toro then you need to buy the single disc Blu-ray director's cut. However, as mentioned before, there are a few interviews in SD on the third DVD. There are interviews with Charles Dutton [1 minute], Jeremy Northam [25 seconds], Josh Brolin [1 minute, 38 seconds], Mira Sorvino [1 minute], two interviews with director, Del Toro [3 minutes 25 seconds and 25 minutes ] and a few minutes of behind-the-scenes footage. As this is an Italian disc, it will start in Italian but there is the standard English soundtrack available. Unfortunately, there are no English subtitles on this 3 disc edition.

Mimic imitates previous creature features but fails to copy their innovation. Low budget horrors were of high saturation during the 90s, as directors attempt to blend CGI with prosthetics to enhance the quality of their films. From 'Tremors' to 'Alien: Resurrection', the combination of sci-fi and horror was particularly popular during this decade. So much so, that Del Toro's first foray into American cinema was exactly that with Mimic. An entomologist releases a species of insects to cull cockroaches that are carrying a disease, however years later these creatures have drastically evolved and are now killing humans. Dank, dark and gloomy, you know it's a Del Toro production when it features characters crawling in sticky residue. The germaphobes and entomophobes among you may feel repelled to watch this, with Del Toro not shying away from showcasing scenes of squeamish nature throughout the "Frankenstein"-like plot. Rubbing insect blood into skin, faces slowly being bitten off and plenty of legs crawling through abandoned subway stations. It relishes in the roots of its sub-genre, but that entertainment does not hold strong for long. The first act starts strong, with concise scientific exploration into the world of insects, featuring a glorious ant colony in the largest glass container I've seen. The narrative plants seeds, inevitably growing into a promising gruesome horror. That promise is shattered once the second act arrives as the pace stagnates almost entirely. Characters go wandering down into sewers or abandoned buildings, giant cockroach creature appears, minimal death sequence, rinse and repeat. The third act slowly picks up but rapidly wastes supporting characters as they are forgotten about or killed off, leaving the uninteresting characters alive. The environment never felt substantial or varying enough, as if the entire film was just a blur of dampness. It lacked memorability and frankly became sluggish. The empty scientific reasoning only adds to the stupid premise, but you roll with it. The serviceable acting and mediocre visual effects still makes this lesser horror watchable.

Review of the Blu-ray versionMimic was Guillermo del Toro's first major studio film and, easy to say, not a great experience for him as his original vision was steadily hacked away by endless producer interference. The film that remains is an odd hybrid of dumbed-down monster movie with some remaining visual invention and interesting story elements.This disc is an attempt to get back to something closer to del Toro's planned film and the interesting commentary track from the director details all the issues with the production and what could have been. While this "director's cut" attempts to recover some of the producer-induced damage, most of the issues with the film were at the basic script and design level, so much of what del Toro planned was never filmed and thus is not available to restore.Overall - at face value this is an OK monster movie but also, for fans of Guillermo del Toro, an interesting insight into what his first studio film *could* have been.

Dr. Susan Tyler is an entomologist, who along with her future husband Dr. Peter Mann have created a new breed of insect. There's a disease that's carried by cockroaches that's killing the children of Manhattan, so they've created a new breed of insect that secretes a fluid that kills cockroaches. They were designed to die off after one generation, but 3 years later they haven't died, they've mutated into giant sized insects that can mimic humans. It's now up to Susan, Peter, a few members of their team, a cop who had to act as a guide and a shoe shine worker whose son wandered off to stop them.Mimic doesn't have any major stars, what it does have is a group of great actors who are here because of ability and not looks. Oscar winner Mira Sorvino is good as Susan, she shows a great range of emotions. Jeremy Northam is fine as her husband Peter, he did everything he had to do well without wowing me. Where Mimic is excellent is the supporting cast, there's Charles S. Dutton as Leonard the cop/reluctant guide. Oscar nominees Giancarlo Giannini and Josh Brolin give very good performances, and oscar winner F. Murray Abraham has a small role as Dr. Gates.It was Guillermo Del Toro's first American movie as director, and his stylish, dark, creative imprint is all over it. Del Toro actually disowned the movie as he felt Bob Weinstein had interfered too much during filming, constantly coming to the set and insisting scenes be shot differently or even completely changed. This upset Del Toro enough that he didn't direct another film for 4 years, and that was the superb Devil's Backbone made back at home in Mexico/Spain where he had total creative control. He did return to America again the year later to direct Blade 2, the best of the series and the Hellboy films.After the opening 40-45 minutes, the rest of the movie is set underground, beneath a subway station. Any fans of Del Toro will be used to the underground scenes as they appear in most of his movies, the visuals are superb and the dark tunnels are creepy and atmospheric. The giant insects are kept in the shadows for most of the movie, we do get to see them more clearly as the movie reaches it's climax. The $25,000,000 budget ensured that the effects were going to be good, and there's some fantastic set pieces. There's no nudity and very little gore, but there are several gross scenes involving the insects.Mimic is a really good creature feature, essentially a very intelligent, expensive, well acted, brilliantly directed b-movie. I wouldn't hesitate to give Mimic 4 stars, but i'm not just reviewing the film, i'm reviewing the dvd. The picture quality is pretty good, but there's no extras at all. There's English subtitles only, and scene selection. The complete lack of extras is probably because Del Toro disowned it, his movies normally have excellent extras and i'd have loved a commentary for Mimic.Mimic is similar in ways to The Relic that was made in the same year, studios quite often release very similar films around the same time that seem like the same script reworked. The Relic and Mimic both 1997. Armageddon and Deep Impact both 1998. The Illusionist and The Prestige both 2006. Mission To Mars and Red Planet both 2000. Dante's Peak and Volcano both 1997. Mimic is better than The Relic, but that's well worth checking out if you enjoy this.

Great earlier horror movie--mira sorvino, fun and definitely entertaining, with shocks and grisly deaths throughout its running time-the movie is reminiscent of "Them"-the 50s picture starring james whitmore, in structure and ideas.Del toro showing a grasp of what has made him a great fantasy director.the movie has wit and shocks, if you like hellboy 1&2, you will probably enjoy this...