Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Winifred The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

mikey undead I first saw this film when I was around 12. I enjoyed it but didn't really remember any of it apart from how creepy the Judas Breed was. Now 27 and being a huge Del Toro fan I decided to rewatch this and when I heard how Del Toro had disowned this movie because of studio meddling but had now released a director's cut that he was happy with, I had to check it out.I still enjoyed it and thought the first half of the film was fantastic, dark, creepy atmosphere with a great premise but to me once the whole cast descend into the tunnels the films goes a bit downhill.It becomes too typical Hollywood monster action movie and we see way too much of the Judas Breed which loses its creep factor it had in the first half. The ending as well is too Hollywood for a Del Toro film.The director's cut adds in a few more scenes which explains things a little more but don't improve the movie much at all, so if you hated the theatrical cut you wont like this version much more.Overall it's an enjoyable film and if you're a Del Toro fan or monster movie fan check it out just know its not one of his best but had lots of potential. If he had made it nowadays it could have been great.6/10

Scott LeBrun Filmmaker Guillermo del Toros' Hollywood debut is an expectedly slick and highly atmospheric film. Oscar winner Mira Sorvino stars as Susan Tyler, an entomologist. She comes up with a plan to eliminate cockroaches in NYC, which are now spreading a fatal disease dubbed Stricklers' to the city's children. Her solution is to contrive a new hybrid species of roach - the Judas - which will wipe out the roach population, while being supposedly unable to breed themselves. Three years later, the so-called "solution" is now the problem, and the Judas breed has done a lot of evolving - and has proved itself capable of breeding after all. (As Ian Malcolm of the "Jurassic Park" story would have said, "Life found a way.") Now Susan and a select few others descend into the bowels of the city to try to put an end to things once and for all.After clashes with Bob Weinstein, Del Toro ultimately disowned the film, but at least in more recent years his original directors' vision has become available on Blu-ray. Over all, it's a richer, more satisfying experience than the theatrical release. Granted, at some points some of the characters start to grate on the nerves, but in the end they regain ones' sympathies and rooting interest. Donald A. Wollheims' story was adapted by Matthew Robbins and del Toro, and the filmmakers take full advantage of some very spooky concepts and settings. This directors' cut, running 112 minutes, is deliberately paced but quite suspenseful, and features striking digital effects and creature designs by (among others) the legendary Rob Bottin ("The Howling", "The Thing", "Total Recall").Not all of the characters get fleshed out all that much, but the cast gives it their best effort. Josh Brolin and Oscar winning veteran F. Murray Abraham are kind of wasted, but their presence is still very welcome. The beautiful Sorvino is very credible and is playing a reasonably strong woman. Jeremy Northam plays her husband, Giancarlo Giannini is endearing as a middle aged shoe shine man with a young son (Alexander Goodwin), Charles S. Dutton is typically commanding as a subway cop, and Norman Reedus fans will thrill to see him in a small role."Mimic" does require the viewer to pay attention, because key exposition is divulged in a very quick manner, but it rewards them in kind. Its ambiance is perfect horror movie stuff through and through.Eight out of 10.

MaximumMadness One of the most fascinating things about director Guillermo del Toro's 1997 Sci-Fi/Horror film "Mimic" is that, despite well-reported behind- the-scenes drama and clashes with the producers, and the fact that del Toro even went so far as to disown the original theatrical cut of the film... it's still a darned good film, and an incredible exercise in style and classic chills-&-thrills.Yes, even though del Toro distanced himself from the version released in theaters (though he later released a somewhat extended director's cut that he felt more content and happy with), that cannot stop the film from not only being fundamentally solid and extraordinarily well- made, but also a sure sign of the superb work del Toro went on to make. You can tell that this film was a stepping stone, allowing him to to gain the experience necessary to make future classics like "The Devil's Backbone", the two "Hellboy" films and of course, his masterpiece "Pan's Labyrinth."This film oozes (often literally) with the things that del Toro clearly loves. Insects. Sewers. Autopsies. Quirky characters. Clockwork. The unborn. Everything. And you can tell, despite the drama on-set, that del Toro's wonderful fingerprints are all over the film. (In both the director's and theatrical cuts.)In the midst of a viral epidemic of "Strickler's Disease" (an illness responsible for a growing number of deaths amongst children), Entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) uses genetic engineering to create the "Judas Breed"- a new form of insect that will kill of the cockroaches containing the dreaded "Strickler's Diesease." In order to ensure that the Judas Breed will die out, it was designed specifically to die off after only a generation. However, three years later, Susan discovers that the Judas Breed has somehow survived. Aided by their altered body-chemistry, they have managed to somehow breed and evolve, growing and changing to blend in with natural predators... including humans. Together with her husband Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam), a shoe- shiner named Manny (Giancarlo Giannini), his Autistic son Chuy (Alexander Goodwin), a police officer (Josh Brolin) and a subway guard (Charles S. Dutton), Susan must find a way to stop the growing threat presented by these new forms of the Judas Breed, before they manage to blend in, infiltrate and destroy humanity.The cast is absolutely superb. In particular Sorvino and Giannini, who steal the show. Everyone gives wonderful, superb performances that humanizes the horror and drama, creating a wonderful sense of dread when they are in danger. The only sore thumbs here are Dutton and Brolin. Both fantastic actors. And both are decent. However, their limited material (somewhat more one-dimensional than the other characters) makes them feel a bit more "flat" than other characters. Still, they do a decent job. They just don't quite "fit in" with the rest of the cast.The direction is magnificent, as is always the case with del Toro films. While his prior work "Cronos" was a very good start, and contained the first hints and glimpses of his style... here, we are given a definite plunge into the mind of del Toro. The direction is absolutely incredible, and his choices in shots, composition and movement are beautiful and poetic, and create wonderful senses of love, fear, dread, drama and even hope. A true mastermind of cinema.It's hard to judge the script, knowing many scenes were changed, altered, dropped, etc. But the writing in general is quite strong for a genre-film, and characters are (for the most part) well-developed and possessing enough "quirks" to make them identifiable and worth caring for.Other aspects of the film are all generally strong. From some stunning cinematography courtesy of Dan Laustsen, to the absolutely bone-tingling (and action packed) score by the magnificent Marco Beltrami, to the wonderful mixture of practical and CGI effect... everything gels into a well-oiled machine to deliver del Toro's Gothic horror beats.I'm honestly shocked that this film doesn't have the recognition it deserves. Sadly, that is often the case for not only del Toro's film (his other works such as "Pan's Labyrinth" and even the recent "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark", which he served as a co-writer and producer on, are all tragically under-recognized despite their rampant strengths), but also good horror in general. It's a shame that the masses pass up on unique, well-made chillers in favor of generic sequels and processed PG- 13 fluff. But that's a rant for another time.As it stands, I give "Mimic" a strong 8 out of 10. (That's for the director's cut. The theatrical cut is more of a 7 out of 10. Still good, but not QUITE as good.) It's definitely a film worth checking out for fans of Sci-Fi, Horror or pure cinematic thrills.

daggersineyes If you like Alien, Predator etc you will love this. Stop reading the reviews, ignore the ridiculously low rating and seek out the proper version of this movie (ie the Directors cut). Del Toro has produced a masterpiece here and it's a tragedy it's not better known. This is one of those examples at IMDb that makes me distrust the ratings system and yet again proves the better rated flicks are often not that good while the ones with mediocre ratings are very often well worth watching.The creatures are worth the price of admission all on their own. Plus Mira looks awesome when she's covered in bug excretion and subway grime! WATCH IT!! :)