Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Paul Magne Haakonsen This 2003 addition to the "Mimic" legacy didn't really bring much of anything new or any improvement to the franchise. It is not a bad movie, don't get me wrong. It was just too mediocre, generic and it had essentially all been seen before in parts one and two respectively.The story in "Mimic: Sentinel" was about Marvin (played by Karl Geary), a young man living in a plastic bubble as he had suffered from the Strickler's disease. Confined to his room, Marvin and his sister Rosy (played by Alexis Dziena) watch the neighborhood fall prey to the aggressive Judas Breed cockroaches.Story-wise, then it was essentially the same as in parts one and two, except that director J.T. Petty did add an interesting element to the story with having the guy confined to his room and seeing the world through a camera lens. That actually added a unique element to the movie, and it worked quite well.The actors in the movie were doing good jobs, especially Karl Geary, whom seemed to have fully immersed himself into the role of the somewhat weird young man. And of course when you put Lance Henriksen into a movie, even with just a small supportive role, you know you are getting something quite good in return.The creature / cockroach designs were good and living well up to what had been established in the first two movies.It was a shame that "Mimic: Sentinel" failed to be extraordinary, because it had all the ingredients right at the fingers of director J.T. Petty.

ebiros2 This is another direct to video sequel to the Mimic.Pulling another variant with the Mimic character was bit of a stretch. The movie starts to look the same after the first two. But the movie is well formulated. The acting and the quality remains at similar levels to the first two. While there's nothing wrong with the movie, It's no longer intriguing to see the killing by the bug or figure out how the story goes, because you already know.It's not a bad horror flick, but if you've seen the first two, there won't be any new surprises.They should have picked a completely new settings for the backdrop of the story like in a jungle or something. Then the story would have had a whole new life to it.

Scarecrow-88 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.

smythp I won't labour the details since I think most of the points I would make have already been made by others. The acting is pedestrian at best. The plot is as thin as clingfilm and is a rather poor homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window (Please note: regarded as something of a masterpiece by many).Rear window works because we see everything from the main character's (Jimmy Stewart) perspective, namely the wheelchair, in his bedroom. Everything the audience sees is from that vantage point. Jimmy Stewart's character is a helpless observer who plays no part in any activity outside his bedroom. This creates an atmosphere of claustrophobia and racks up the tension continuously. This reaches an unbearable point when he sees the murderer returning home to his apartment, which his girlfriend has just broken into, looking for evidence. This tension is created by the knowledge that Stewart is powerless to warn or help her.The same scene is recreated in Mimic: Sentinel but is completely flat and offers us absolutely no tension whatsoever. There are various other nods to Rear Window which immediately tells us that the writers didn't really have anything new or novel to say in this film. There are various plot elements that seem to do little other than fill in time (in a film which seems overly long at 78 minutes). For example when he attempts to report the danger to the police, his mother starts an intimate affair with the officer whom she had met briefly once before several years ago? Then there is the kooky, doped up sister, who walks around flapping her arms all the time. The main character is too active to be the impotent character Stewart plays but he's also too feeble to be a real hero character.Leaving the Rear Window connection, there's very little rhyme or reason to the rest of the plot. No explanation is provided for many plot elements and very little motivation is given to any of the characters. It's all just an excuse for some atmospheric shots of not very scary giant insects dragging people off into the dark and some occasional shots of blood splatter. No attempt if made to create a feeling of impending dread as any real person would have in such a situation. None of the characters are in any way sympathetic and it's hard to get worked up enough to care about the film when we don't care about any of the characters.We're left with a film which lacks the substance of Rear Window and which fails to provide any substance of it's own. I wouldn't bother spending money to rent it but if it's on TV and you're a completist who liked the other two Mimic films, then go ahead.