Code Mercury

This movie has one huge problem: *its basic premise makes no sense at all*. Killing the kid is in absolutely nobody's interest. His codebreaking skill would be of immeasurable value to the very people who are trying to kill him, while safeguarding the code without killing him would be fairly straightforward. This is so obvious that it essentially ruins the whole movie.

The rest of the movie is OK if you ignore that problem. The performances are generally good, and Miko Hughes is excellent as Simon. There is nothing here you haven't seen a dozen times before, but it's generally well done. It's not worth making any real effort to see this movie, but you probably won't have a bad time if you do.

Willis is impressive (and softer) as an F.B.I. agent who protects an autistic boy who has cracked a major government code. Baldwin appears as the man who is threatened by the young boys' actions. Surprisingly good film with a more toned down type of hero for star Willis.

There are two great acting performances in this film. Bruce Willis plays Art Jeffries, an FBI agent with attitude. Miko Hughes plays Simon Lynch, an autistic savant with a gift for codebreaking. Both are believable but Miko Hughes is astonishing – one of the best ever screen performances by a child. The scenes between the pair of them are really touching and you can believe that Willis really likes kids. Perhaps he does.

The US government's pursuit of Lynch in this film may at first appear overly far-fetched and scaremongering. Then you remember the US attitude towards the British savant, Gary McKinnon, who was accused of perpetrating the biggest military computer hack of all time by hacking into 97 US military and NASA computers in 2002. Well, they didn't kill his mum and dad, and hunt him like an animal. But after 10 years of attempted extradition, and speculation of a 70-year jail term, maybe this story is just an exaggeration of reality, and not quite as ridiculous as some commentators have suggested.

It's not really a downside but if you come to this film expecting a shoot-em-up action movie, you may be disappointed. It's much more than that and consequently slower – it's a touching drama with action scenes, and so we can forgive, just about, the pace through the middle of the film. The writing is actually very good and Pearson, Konner and Rosenthal all deserve credit.

I did find the score a bit distracting. Sort of 'too big' and too 'James Bond' for the film. Scenes without music were better. Though the music being played at the club Jeffries visits was really good and I would have liked to have heard more of Koko Taylor (now no longer with us) belting out some blues.

I was finding it difficult to see where this film was going. When Wills is with a kid, like in 16 blocks or Die Hard 4, you expect a visible end point, and there wasn't one. There was a sense of going around in circles. Until the last 5 minutes. Ultimately that cost it a couple of stars and the score lost another one. So seven out of ten for this.

The novel 'Simple Simon' was written by Ryne Pearson and easily transferred to the silver screen, where it was directed expertly by Harold Becker. The movie tells the story of an autistic boy named Simon Lynch (Miko Hughes) who incredibly is able to decipher a top secret code created by the N.S.A. When the secret is uncovered, the top executive, Nick Kudrow (Alec Baldwin) believes his network of undercover agents and their identifies are in danger of being compromised and therefor orders a top assassin to execute Simon and his parents. The only defense for the boy is Art Jeffries (Bruce Willis) a burned-out F.B.I agent who despite his short-comings is a tough-as-nails individual who learns Simon is a very special child and soon bonds with him. Along the way and amid the encroaching danger Jeffries receives help from Stacey a coffee shop patron (Kim Dickens) and fellow FBI agent Tommy B. Jordan (Chi McBride) The film is a combination of intrigue, murder and suspense with excitement filling in all the gaps. Willis and Hughes give a heartwarming and endearing performance. Recommended. ****

Mercury Rising is a very conventional "government bad guys" story about evil agents out to kill an autistic boy who can break their top code. Of course, the premise of the movie, that the government would rather kill someone who can break their code rather than fixing the problems with the code, is incredibly stupid. If one boy can break the code, isn't is reasonable that some other boy in Russia or wherever can also break it? If it has a flaw that allows the kid to find the pattern, doesn't it need to be fixed? Of course, not. We just kill the kid and pretend nothing ever happened.

But, what is really sad is that there is a grain of truth in this story. It is the policy of the US Government that TRYING to break codes is illegal. If you are smart enough to figure out that the DVD encryption has a major flaw, it's not the fault of the designers, it's your fault. Researchers who have discovered flaws in codes, watermarks, etc, have been arrested. This "head in the sand" policy has been around for a long time.

So, next time you see this movie, just think how easy it would be to combine this attitude with someone a bit too gung ho.