mimic sentinel

THE FLICK: It’s hard to say who should get the blame for “Mimic: Sentinel,” the producers who came up with the ridiculous “Rear Window with giant cockroaches” concept, or first-time director J. T. Petty, who was handpicked out of NYU on the basis of his student film. And it’s also hard to say whether the slow-pace, bad acting and claustrophic sets are the result of a stripped down budget or some artistic aspiration to take the “Mimic” films in a new direction. You won’t get any answers by watching the movie. All you’ll get is a frustrating experience in low-budget “art-horror” hidden behind name-brand franchise. The plot has a Strickler’s disease survivor, Marvin, isolated in his room with a view, living vicariously through his telephoto camera lens as he snaps pictures of the neighbors. When he catches some clues on film of mysterious murder, it’s not long before the truth comes back to bite him: the Judas Bugs are alive and well and breeding. And his family is smack dab in the killing jar. Lance Henricksen and Amanda Plummer stop by for a quick paycheck. And the bugs themselves are relegated to brief computer generated cameos. Leaving nothing more than a dialogue heavy rip-off of Hitchcock that no filmmaker would want to keep on their resume. THE FEATURES: As lame as the movie turned out to be, Dimension has tacked on some well-produced extras, including a 15-minute “Making Of” that shows clips from Petty’s student horror film, “Soft For Digging,” and tours the eccentricities of filming in Romania (two words: wild dogs). Petty also contributes a commentary, and a good one at that – nicely balanced between tech-talk and personal anecdotes. The movie itself is 16 X 9 enhanced with 5.1 sound and a sparkling transfer. FINAL SCORE: Even those who enjoy a guilty pleasure now and then will have a hard time swallowing this pill. The high-concept idea was a noble effort, but “Mimic Sentinel” should have stuck to the more visceral approach of the original. Buy it for the extras only.