Mimic - Director's Cut [Blu-ray]

Really liked this film

A fantastic movie put together with a real appreciation of gothic horror. Loved the story, truely terrifying bugs that makes you wonder....what if.....

This is a classic movie that I’ll watch again and again.

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.

An absolutely cracking monster flick.Mutant cockroaches are breeding in the New York sewers, not just getting big but getting smart as they learn to disguise themselves as their prey, and guess who their prey is...that's right us!Joking aside this is a really good looking picture and when we are taken down into the old abandoned subway stations for the last half and big finale of the show you realise this isn't a B-movie at all but a rather big budget romp that will scare you and give you more than one or two thrills.

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.

Great film from a time before CGI took over special effects, good plot great acting.

I have seen this film before and I like it. The director, Guillermo del Toro is a master director of horror films. However, the main reason for me purchasing this blu-ray is to view the film in high definition and man I was not disappointed. The quality of the blu-ray is excellent and well worth it. The picture image and sound is very good. A good buy at a good price.

Few manage creepy movies as well as del Toro and while this leans more heavily toward sci-fi, it does get pretty creepy once he descends below ground into his favorite territory — in this case disused New Yorksubway tunnels. The basic story concerns a plague sweeping NYC carried by cockroaches which is solved by a scientist's coming up with a super bug that will kill off all the roaches and, unable to reproduce, self-destruct. Like all great theories it doesn't quite work out that way. If you are freaked out by insects you should maybe avoid this one — although there are no spiders, earwigs or centipedes, just roaches and something resembling a cross between a mantis and an ant. It's great fun and well worth a watch or two.

J'ai revu ce film avec grand plaisir...

There's art, and then there's commerce. The idea is to make money and entertain. I found it wholly disingenuous for Guillermo Del Toro to complain throughout his "reclaiming Mimic" featurette, that he never got to make the movie he intended but that this was a good compromise but that he hated compromising, especially when his vision was better, but this still isn't the movie he set out to make, but it's close enough, but even so, he hated the ending and.......whatever. There's a way around that, it's called a remake. Directors do it all the time. Stop whining.As incredibly overstated by Del Toro, the ideas he didn't get to include in Mimic wouldn't necessarily have made for a better film. It's also a slap in the face to suggest we fell in love with the wrong film because it was more Hollywood, rather than the conceptual piece he had planned. And that's why I find it odd that this is called the director's cut. I don't know why Del Toro endorsed this new version when clearly he still isn't happy with it. I don't think it matters much because this is still the movie I fell in love with and the version I'm keeping in my collection (Guillermo Del Toro notwithstanding).I've always found this movie to be sufficiently eerie, the shadowy figures that look human but aren't (how easy it would be to pass one and not think it wasn't human until it was too late). I like the characters, the situations, the ill fated investigation underground, the fabulously first gore-ific killing followed by an inelegant exit down the drain. Part mystery, part horror, part action-flick, this is a seamless piece of entertainment.

Obviamente esa valoración sólo es correcta si te gusta la película, claro.No entro a valorar la edición en BRD porque no he tenido ocasión de verla todavía, pero se pueden ver análisis por ahí.En cuanto al producto comprado, sólo decir que está bien de precio.

Persönlich bin ich total neugierig gewesen wie Mimic wohl jetzt Neu auf der Blu-ray ausschauen würde. Eine von Kakerlaken, nenne sie lieber Insekten ;) übertragene Infektionskrankheit fordert in New York zahlreiche Menschenleben. Nach langen Forschungen gelingt es der jungen Wissenschaftlerin Dr. Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) eine neue Schabenart zur Ungezieferbekämpfung zu züchten. Doch nur wenige Jahre nach diesen Vorfällen muss Dr. Tyler feststellen, dass die mutierten Schaben ein ungewöhnlich aggressives Eigenleben im New Yorker Untergrund entwickelt haben und sich zu einer noch grösseren Gefahr weiterentwickelt haben, alses die ursprüngliche Seuche war - und zwar nicht nur für die Stadt New York, sondern die gesamte Menschheit!. Zwar gibt es an der Story selber eine paar Ungereimtheiten, aber dennoch mal eine interessante Thematik welche aufgeworfen wird - gerade in Bezug zu der Insekten- Vielfalt, welche mich schon als Kind beeindruckt hat – was eine Vitalität.Sehr interessant befinde ich übrigens auch jene Vorstellungen des Filmemachers Guillermo del Toro, der 1997 ein noch wenig bekannter Jung-Regisseur gewesen war. Seine Handschrift, wie sie in seinen späteren Werken wie Pan's Labyrinth und Hellboy sehr deutlich zum Vorschein kam, war dahingehend noch nicht übermässig ausgeprägt. Aber trotzdem merkt man 'Mimic', seiner ersten grossen Hollywood-Produktion, bereits an, das in ihm ein spezieller und höchst eigenwilliger Filmemacher steckt. Dass ausgerechnet 'Mimic' von kommerzorientierten Studio- und Produzenten-Entscheidungen überschattet wurde, ist bedauerlich - denn dem atmosphärisch dicht erzählten Insekten-Horror-Thriller ist anzumerken, dass die Kreativität von del Toro wohl stark in Zaum gehalten wurde. Diese Problematik seitens des Studios in Bezug zu seinem Film, erklärt der mir sehr sympathische und intelligente Filmemacher in dem Interviews auf der Blu-ray entsprechend. Und del Toro hat wirklich gute Einfälle, ein sehr guter Filmemacher mit guten Ideen.Bonus- Material gibt es auch auf der Blu-ray, ist aber leider ein wenig kurz gehalten worden, wenngleich es für mich doch sehr interessant gewesen ist. Die Schauspieler selber machen eine sehr überzeugende Figur - alles in allem recht ordentlich. Mira Sorvino als Wissenschaftlerin hat mir dabei am meisten gefallen.Beim Ton von 'Mimic' sollte man erwähnen, dass die (optional) verfügbare Director's Cut-Fassung nur in einer nicht vollständig synchronisierten Tonfassung vorliegt bei der alle nicht-synchronisierten Passagen in Englisch mit automatisch eingeblendeten deutschen Untertiteln gezeigt werden - was das Filmvergnügen etwas einschränken könnte. – Gut, ich schaue alle Filme zwar immer ausschließlich im Original, daher störte mich das nicht - aber dachte es kann nicht schaden, es mal nebenbei zu erwähnen. Ansonsten aber hat man es beim deutschen Ton mit einem sehr surroundlastigen Mix zu tun - was vor allem deswegen überrascht, weil der Film schon ein bisschen älter ist. Der 7.1 HD-Master jedenfalls ist wirklich erste Sahne, und man erhält im Heimkino- Bereich entsprechendes Gänsehaut-Feeling.Das Bild selber befinde ich als wirklich gut, angemessen an dem Alter des Films. Ein solides Bild mit einigen (z.T. stilmittelbedingten, Filmkorn kommt teilweise leicht auf) Mankos. Vor allem ist mir aufgefallen, das dass Bild bei Mimic im Hellen nicht so gut gewesen ist wie im Dunkeln. Das hatte ich bisher bei noch keiner Blu-ray umgekehrt erlebt. Fand es wirklich Klasse. - Erinnerte mich sogleich an - The Descent - wo auch schon sehr gutes Bild im Dunkeln geboten wurde. Die große Stärke einer Blu-ray ist eben auch seine Power im dunklen Bereichen zu zeigen, es sprichwörtlich zu entfalten, also richtig zu glänzen - und meiner Beobachtung nach hat es seinen teil erfüllt. Insgesamt ist das Blu-ray- Bild bei Mimic nicht nur im Dunkeln sehr viel besser als im Hellen, sondern ist die vorliegende Blu-ray eine klare Steigerung gegenüber der DVD. Gerade auch weil man hierüber zum ersten mal den Directors` Cut (welchen ich persönlich der Kinofassung vorziehe) anschauen kann, und das in Blu-ray – was möchte man mehr als Fan?.