Welcome to the Galactic Theater, where we'll explore the works of master manipulators of light waves, examine the themes brought to play, and critique the final products of months of hard work.

This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the movie.

That said, on to the review!

Art Jeffries is everything the FBI could want in an undercover operative. He's one of the best in the bureau, able even to infiltrate a small family of American separatists with enough firepower to really hurt someone. But his one problem, labelled by psychiatrists as "delusional paranoia," is actually caring a little too much. Deemed unfit for field or undercover work, Art ends up listening in on, taping, and transcribing phone-tap conversations. At least, that's what he does until he's sent to deal with what seems to be a missing child case. But the truth is far from what it seems. It's true that 9-year-old Simon Lynch's parents are dead, the apparent victims of a murder suicide. And Simon seems to be missing. But Art soon finds him hiding in a covered alcove in his closet. It isn't apparent until they get him to the hospital--as a possible witness to the crime no less--that Art discovers the truth about Simon: he's autistic. And that's when things really get confusing.

Art doesn't know how and he doesn't know why, but somebody's out to kill Simon. First somebody claiming to be one of Simon's dead parents calls the hospital and asks that he be moved out of guarded facilities into pediatrics. Then, when Art goes up to find Simon, a doctor misdirects him four floors down to radiology...where there is nobody on duty. Worried now, and very suspicious, Art races back and gets Simon out of the hospital just as somebody starts taking shots at them. They steal an ambulance and make it to the freeway, where that same somebody--now in pursuit--takes out the windows of the ambulance until Art slams on the brakes and drops behind the shooter. He gets Simon out of there quickly, but now he's stuck dealing with an autistic child who he doesn't know how to relate to with an assassin dogging their trail. What's going on?

Unfortunately for Art and Simon, two employees of the National Security Agency involved in the development of MERCURY, the U.S. government's newest "unbreakable" code, made an error and sent the code out into the American public as part of a puzzle book to see if a very intelligent American citizen could crack it and believing that only a very, very intelligent person could actually succeed. What they didn't count on is a copy of that puzzle book finding its way into Simon's hands, and Simon reading the encoded message. With the safety of thousands of undercover operatives at risk, program chief Nicholas Kudrow has decided that the life of one little boy--even an autistic--is worth the sacrifice and has ordered his termination. And Kudrow doesn't care who dies to preserve the secret of MERCURY. Can Art save Simon before Kudrow gets his blood-covered hands on him?

Now this was an interesting movie. I mean, here we have someone who would ordinarily be one of the most harmless individuals on the planet suddenly threatening the safety and security of the United States and its most covert agency. Right now I can't really recall any other movie with a remotely similar plot. Of course, ordinarily action thrillers like this one aren't usually my preferred viewing choices: as you can see from the other movies I've reviewed, I tend towards fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. But this is a surprisingly welcome exception.

Now over the years I've seen the two principle actors, Bruce Willis and Alec Baldwin, in a number of action/adventure thrillers. Willis, after all, appeared in the three Die Hard movies as well as The Fifth Element and Striking Distance. And Baldwin was Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October, and--one of my personal favorites--The Shadow. So to my mind, they weren't really doing anything new. However, their performances in this movie were what you'd expect from such accomplished actors: spectacular. Off-hand, though, I'd have to say that seeing Baldwin playing Nick Kudrow was rather disconcerting. He gave the role depth and feeling, of course, but seeing him calmly ordering the cold-blooded death of a nine-year-old boy was chilling. I loved it!

Personally, I think the real star of this movie was Miko Hughes, who played Simon. Maybe you remember him: he played Steve Guttenberg's son in Zeus and Roxanne, the little boy at the center of Wes Craven's New Nightmare, one of the children in Arnold Schwarzenegger's class in Kindergarten Cop, and Michelle Tanner's classmate Aaron on Full House. Or perhaps you remember him better as the toddler who came back from the dead a murderous demon in Pet Semetary. Quite a list of accomplishments for a twelve-year-old (when he acted in Mercury Rising) actor. But his acting in this movie was stupendous. Ignoring for a moment that most of his dialogue was short and repetitious and his "action" scenes weren't all that big (not when compared to Willis' scenes), it can't be easy for anyone to act autistic. Dustin Hoffman did a good job of it (I guess) in Rain Man, but Hughes' role was much more impressive. It's hard to explain, really, exactly what was so captivating about this, so you'll just have to see it for yourself to understand.

You can purchase Mercury Rising on videotape at just about any video store you go to, or you can try ordering it directly from Universal Studios. Either way, go and get it: the movie is definitely worth it!

Interested in buying this video? You can! Just follow the link to order the VHS version or the DVD version. You can also visit the Stellar Video Store for other titles.

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