Mimic: Sentinel (2003)

Absolutely the worst movie.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I've seen quite a good amount of movies, a lot of them horror. It's my go-to-genre. I love it. I have seen a lot of movies, therefore I have seen a lot of pretty bad movies. Mimic 3 is the worst movie I have ever seen. After I had seen it, I threw the DVD behind my left speaker, and left it there for several months before I could muster up the strength and will to pick it up again and put it back with the other movies. I mean it, there is nothing good about this movie. It's so incredibly boring. Pretty much all that happens is the main character is spying on people on the street, from his window. Oh, and there is a bad looking creature somewhere in there, too. This is not a horror movie, it a gruesome mess of a boring sequence of barely live images. AVOID. No stars. If it was possible I could give this a negative score. Like minus 5 stars or something.

Subtitled "Sentinel" this entirely forgettable, needless, and stultifying sequel is a complete bore, which copies "Rear Window" of all things, telling its insipid story of more mimicking insects causing havoc in a neighborhood, where a sickly young man(survivor of the original insect plague) tries to convince others that they are not extinct. Lance Henriksen(veteran and talented character actor, best known for his work as profiler Frank Black from TV series "Millennium") guest stars in a small role near the end, but is wasted in this nonsense(quite literally), and film has zero appeal at all. A waste of time.

Marvin(Karl Geary)is one of the last remaining persons to have contacted an illness called Strickler's which derived from "diseased" roaches. He is pretty much confined to his room where he keeps a camera pointed constantly across the street at his neighbors' open windows gazing into their lives since his has been put on hold. His condition is so bad, if a woman, such as his later love-interest, a dentist's assistant, Carmen(Rebecca Mader)comes near him with perfume he requires oxygen or he'll go into an asthmatic fit. Even if he smells the afterlife of smoke, like from Carmen who had just finished a cigarette prior to entering his room, the shock kicks in with him darting for his oxygen tank. Occasionally, he journeys out of his room, but not without his tank and only for minutes not wishing to risk his health. His sister, Rosy(Alexis Dziena)is an addict who notices her brother's interest in Carmen. Rosy likes to poke fun at Marvin's hobby and often struggles with the need to get high..she is always on edge and squirrelly. His mother Simone(Amanda Plummer)has a new love in her life, a beat cop Gary Dumars(John Kapelos)who pretends, at first, of being a detective. He's called in when Marvin and Rosy believe they saw a drug dealer, Des(Keith Robinson)killed by the "garbageman", a dark, conspicuous character with bags on his feet whose face they have a hard time seeing. Also, Marvin keeps tabs on a father and son, whose relationship descends as the other son of the family(seen at the beginning killed by the cockroach killer)remains missing. Soon, the person they believed was the garbageman(Lance Henriksen) committing the murder of Des, shows his face when he finds Rosy and Carmen in his apartment(they decide to see what's up with him while also searching for possible evidence regarding Des' death). This man has something padlocked in his freezer..and it could be something relative to the cockroach creatures which show up to kill various victims on the streets at the wrong time, including Dumars out searching for anyone suspicious.As many have already mentioned, the film uses the idea from Hitchcock's "Rear Window" that a helpless peeper has to watch helplessly as others he loves walk into possible peril. He often struggles for air when simply moving some in his room, so his assisting those in need of help when facing giant bugs with claws that stab the torso repeatedly and have wings which flap incessantly is rather limited. The film plays with what Marvin sees and, especially, what he doesn't. JT Petty adopts a little trick with the camera to let we, the viewers(who are essentially peepers ourselves if you think about it)see other poor apartment dwellers being killed by the giant winged cockroaches through the lens while Marvin is away from it. We see the things responsible for the slayings, but such as Marvin, the viewers can not help anyone either...so, we, in a sense, are helpless on-lookers to peril. I like this idea and think it's the most positive aspect to the flick. But, in all honesty, there's not much story here, other than the poor soul with Strickler's trying to find a way to help his loved ones who seem unable to escape the horror that awaits them. Sadly, I found Henriksen's character a little murky..his motives were open to a point, but I wanted more about him. The killer bugs themselves are only revealed at the end when they attack certain individuals..these attacks deliver the goods in how they speedily thrust the victims before they even have a chance to scream. In the film, Henriksen tells us that the things which lie in his freezer are breeding underground, so I'm guessing there are more sequels to explore a possible outbreak. This flick surrounds a few characters near an apartment complex staying away from what's been occurring to civilization as a whole.

Mimic: Sentinel is set in New York where a sufferer of the disease Stricklers which is mentioned in the first Mimic (1997) named Marvin (Karl Geary) lives with his mom Simone (Amada Plummer) & younger sister Rosy (Alexis Dziena) in an apartment block, he can rarely venture outside his sterile room as he is apparently 'environmentally sensitive' whatever that means. So what does he do to pass the time? For the past 10 years he has taken pictures of the people in the opposite apartment block & basically spies on them, we all have to have a hobby I suppose. However his picture taking gets him into trouble when he witnesses a drug dealer name Des (Keith Robinson) get killed by someone. Marvin begins to organise an investigation into the killing & drags his sister into it but they soon find out that what killed Des wasn't human, it was in fact one of the giant mutant cockroaches from the previous films & it's up to him to stop them...Written & directed by J.T. Petty Mimic: Sentinel is the third film in the Mimic series & you know a series is in trouble when they stop numbering them after only the first two & as if by magic my fears are confirmed with this distinctly average at best horror/thriller. The script is basically Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) with killer genetically created giant bugs, if that sounds appealing to you then what are you reading this for? Go & rent it. If it doesn't sound appealing then you, like me, may not be that impressed with Mimic: Sentinel. The thing is I don't know if I missed something because the final 20 odd minutes came out of nowhere & I actually didn't really understand what was going on. For instance Lance Henriksen suddenly turns up & I honestly don't know who he was or his significance other than his photo is on the back of one of Marvin's books & he seems to know about the killer bugs. He also has this bag of stuff which I presume is the killer bugs blood so they won't attack him but I'm only guessing because that's what happened in the first film. There are other bits & pieces that I didn't understand either like the 'dead' body Rosy shows Marvin under the drain cover at the start yet even though he takes photos of it it never mentioned or seen again, maybe I did miss something I don't know. Maybe Mimic: Sentinel doesn't have any plot holes or loose ends & it's a deeply complex intricately written & thought out piece of suspenseful film-making that I was too stupid to 'get', or then again maybe it's a cheap straight-to-video poorly written & contrived horror sequel that totally rips-off Rear Window & is basically rubbish, who knows...Director Petty does OK, the film has that downbeat somewhat gray look & feel about it like the previous two with it's rundown apartment blocks. Am I the only one who found the constant scenes shot through the lens of Marvin's camera highly annoying, I can't be surely? Also was I the only on who thought this film was far too dark to the extent where it actually became almost impossible to see what was going on at times? The special effect's are used sparingly & are OK but nothing that's going to impress you that much, the giant bugs don't feature that much which doesn't help. The gore is minimal, there's some blood splatter & someone is impaled on the giant bugs pincers (or whatever they are) but not much else to get excited about.Technically Mimic: Sentinel is alright & has that Hollywood polish about it, it's well made enough for sure with decent production values. The acting isn't that good & the always great Henriksen has nothing more than a glorified cameo.Mimic: Sentinel is an OK watch, I didn't think it was anything special & not as good as the previous two but that's just my opinion for what it's worth. Worth a watch if your desperate but don't bust a gut to see it.