This is all you need to know to make an effective decision about whether to watch the giant cockroach film Mimic: the kids die.

The Relic was released around the same time, and it, too, had a scene where street-smart kids did some ill-advised adventuring. Of the two, Relic’s kids are more annoying; sadly, they survive that movie’s man-beast, whereas director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) has no compunction about showing the feral impulses of his mutants. So if you want a “safe” monsterama that entertains yet doesn’t strive for anything else, Relic is your choice. Want something with more meat? Go Team Mimic.

The sci-fi flick is imperfect, made much better by the director’s cut which adds character development, backstory and subtlety to what is still very much an “us vs. them” movie à la Aliens. Even neutered, Mimic is the best pure killer-bug film in ages, possibly since the giant ants of 1954’s Them! Whereas Them! warned us of the dangers of nuclear testing, Mimic introduces the more modern peril of biological tampering. Its heritage hews closer to Frankenstein than The Deadly Mantis, as Mira Sorvino’s scientist has the best of intentions, releasing bioengineered sterile cockroaches to stop a plague. As in all “nature runs amok” films, however, nature finds a way; in this instance, “the way” is to grow to 6 feet tall and learn to imitate humans.

What del Toro initially planned doesn’t come to fruition, but what survived studio interference is damned entertaining. Sorvino (The Replacement Killers) is strong and resourceful as the resident Sigourney; Jeremy Northam (The Net) makes a charmingly geeky counterpart; Charles S. Dutton (Alien 3) pulls out his usual Charles S. Dutton charm. The CGI is fine, if a little raw; the practical effects gloriously disgusting (you’ll never think about excrement the same way again!), and if the final result somewhat lacks for the usual del Toro verve, blame studio execs.

It’s instructive to place Mimic up against movies like The Relic (and not just for the dead kids). The Relic gives us a journeyman director (Peter Hyams) with nothing really vested in the material, working for a paycheck and delivering the product as just that: a product, something to be merchandised. Mimic shows us a genuine artist struggling within artificially defined constraints to deliver a personal vision. It’s flawed and the seams show at points, but del Toro’s compromise is still worth 10 times Hyams’ manufactured goods. —Corey Redekop

Buy it at Amazon.
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