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Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion came up the other, which brought up Miro Sorvino. Going through her back catalogue, Mimic came up. I know I had seen it, and I remember liking it, so I put it on my watchlist.
There’s a lot about Mimic I had forgotten about, like the cast; Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Giancarlo Giannini, Charles S. Dutton, F. Murray Abraham and Josh Brolin. I’ll bet you forget Brolin was in this?
I also forgot it was an early movie by Guillermo del Toro. It was one of his first feature films before he went to Hellboy, Balde II and Pacific Rim and the like. Mimic is very much like Hellboy 1 and 2, but we’ll come back to that.
The Story
Mimic isn’t the most original script, but an interesting story:
Three years ago, entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler genetically created an insect to kill cockroaches carrying a virulent disease. Now, the insects are out to destroy their only predator, mankind.
In the New York sewers, cockroaches are spreading “Stickler’s disease”, that is causing serious illness in children. The CDC has a plan to create a mutant cockroach, that will cause them to die out. Peter (Northam) and Susan (Sorvino) release the Judas cockroach and put an end to the illness.
Three years later, a priest is dragged down to the sewer, by an assailant. The only witness is a young lad, with autism, who calls the assailant Mr Funny Shoes. Susan is working and is brought one of the Judas bugs by two kids who found it in the sewer.
Susan can’t believe the Judas bug is real, as they should have been killed off. Before she can fully examine it, it’s stolen by Mr Funny Shoes. They find another cockroach, but larger and seems to have human organs inside it.
If you know the story of Mimic, you know what happens, if you don’t, you’re in for a treat. As I said, it’s not the most original story, but it is very well told.
Del Toro
As I said, this movie is very much like Hellboy 1 & 2, in style, especially the style of The Golden Army. It’s all shot in the hidden sewers, with some great close-ups of the Judas cockroach. You can see the influence of Mimic in Hellboy 2.
The direction is spot on, as you might imagine from someone like Del Toro. I know he has some hits and misses, but when he directs well, he does a great job. I want to watch Pan’s Labyrinth again now.
The overall style of the movie is very creepy, but not cliched. I liked how there were a couple of sequences that could have had jump scares, but he didn’t do it. Instead of a big clash of music, like a lesser director would have done, he just lets the scene unfold.
There’s one great moment, where Peter is hiding in the sewer, he leans back to reveal a Judas bug. There’s no jump of music, so it takes you a second to two to realise what is going on. I really smiled at this.
Mild spoilers, but I also liked how Del Toro wasn’t afraid to make big decisions, like killing off kids, in quite a brutal manner. It made a change from today’s movies that always pussy out of things like that.
Overall
The cast is great in Mimic, as I said, I only put it on for Sorvino, and she is lovely. It was nice to see her in a very different role from Romy & Michelle, where she’s cute, but an utter airhead. Here, she’s much more serious and shows what a good actress she is.
It was nice to see a young Brolin. I still remember him from Goonies, but I also think of his heavily CG’ed Thanos. Dutton is a cop, trying to help out the entire situation, and again, he’s good.
Mimic is one of those movies that very underrated and I’m glad I revisited it. It’s a horror, maybe a sci-fi horror to a point. It’s got wonderful practical effects, but also some dated CG, but you can let that slide.
If you haven’t seen Mimic in a while, it’s worth another watch. If you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a treat.
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