Review of Mercury Rising (1998) by Steve M — 28 Feb 2006
Mercury Rising.
Starring: Bruce Willis and Alec Baldwin.
Director: Harold Becker.
When an austistic boy innocently proves himself capable of reading the "unbreakable" Mercury Code, maverick FBI agent Art Jeffries (Willis) becomes the the boy's only hope of survival when the ruthless government operative Nick Kudrow (Baldwin) orders him assassinated.
"Mercury Rising" is a by-the-numbers action thriller that borrows and steals just about every plot element and character from other movies where they were far better used. The movie's greatest sin is not its unoriginality;nor is it the complete predictability; nor is it the fact that its villains are engaging in nefarious and bloody deeds when there are far easier and more productive ways to accomplish what they want; nor is the utter implausibility of the way the Mercury Code gets to the austistic kid in the first place. No, this movie's greatest sin is that it takes its warmed-over plot and characters and ends up with a movie that's boring instead of thrilling.
Save this one for the day when you've seen everything else that looks remotely interesting.
This review of Mercury Rising (1998) was written by Steve M on 28 Feb 2006.
Mercury Rising has generally received mixed reviews.
Was this review helpful?
