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Bruce Willis stars as an FBI agent who takes it upon himself to protect an autistic 9-year-old boy (Pet Sematary‘s Miko Hughes) who can crack the Defense agency’s most critical codes. So — naturally? — the military set out to kill the boy and discredit Willis. Mercury Rising is one of the dumbest big studio movies of its time. It starts with a terrible premise. The only reason the boy gets a chance to crack the code is because the code’s creators published it in a national puzzle magazine. If you can get over that piece of idiocy, then you have to accept that the military (represented by a cold-hearted Alec Baldwin) actually feels threatened by a boy who has trouble communicating and looking people in the eye. The cast can’t really be faulted for how bad this movie is. Blame should be thrown at the writing: it’s one of the most ill-conceived screenplays (based on a novel called Simon Says) in recent memory.
Director Harold Becker (Malice, Sea of Love) tries to mine the relationship between Willis and Hughes for heartfelt moments, but man… I hate to say it. But this kid is supremely unlikeable. He has a tendency to wander into traffic, and whenever Willis grabs him in the nick of time, he screams uncontrollably. He screams a lot. He’s irredeemably annoying. Mercury Rising makes you feel bad for anyone who has to take care of behaviorally-challenged kids like this, but sweet Lord almighty… Have pity on the rest of us by not subjecting us to it in the movies.
With Chi McBride, Kim Dickens, Robert Stanton, Bodhi Elfman, Peter Stormare, and an obnoxiously repetitive score by John Barry.