Mimic (1997)

MAY 26, 2007

GENRE: MAD SCIENTIST, MONSTER
SOURCE: DVD (ONLINE RENTAL)

I recall driving to the theater to see Mimic during its theatrical run in the summer of 1997, because my friends and I made plans earlier in the day to see it. But they didn’t show, so I called them from a payphone and found out they had decided to do something else, but since I was out they couldn’t get in touch with me. Yes, none of us had cell phones back then. Feel old? Oh wait, that makes me old. Not you.

Anyway I never got around to seeing it until today. Granted, since then I have seen and loved all of Guillermo Del Toro’s other films (especially Devil’s Backbone), but none of those films were from Dimension, ruiner of all things… well, of all things period. Del Toro has more or less disowned most of the film (he said about 40 minutes or so are HIS, the rest is ‘ruined’), so I never really had much interest. But… as you know, this thing is all encompassing; if I haven’t seen it, it gets queued without prejudice.

And shockingly enough, I really dug the flick. One can sort of tell where the Weinsteins were calling the shots and when they were leaving Del Toro alone, but it still works as a whole. In a way, it’s sort of the exact film I would love: it’s half “film” and half “movie”, to use vague terms. When I watch a Del Toro movie, I expect great visuals, a sense of genuine love for the art of filmmaking, and a sort of dreamlike, lulling quality (which is why I prefer his Spanish films to his American ones, which are often wall-to-wall action). And when I watch a Dimension movie, I want a few gory deaths, a brief appearance by a screen legend* mixed in with a bunch of younger, “hip” folks, rapid fire editing, and the feeling that what I am watching was written and directed by a robot. Mimic offers both!!!

There’s also a hilarious inadvertent sort of passing of the torch from F. Murray Abraham to Mira Sorvino – both of whom are Oscar winners who never again came even remotely close to scaling that wall again. And it’s sort of weird to see Jeremy Northam as a CDC bigwig, since he plays the exact same guy in this summer’s god awful Invasion.

Plus it’s got an autistic kid who is an expert on shoes.

What say you?

*Peter O’Toole – Phantoms. Roy Scheider – Dracula II. Nick Nolte – Nightwatch. Etc.