Copycat (1995)

Such a frustrating disappointment

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Copycat was a good movie. Underrated. It does not get the spotlight other similar films get such as The Silence of the Lambs and Seven for some strange reason considering it looks similar. I think it's just as good as those films. The movie is very suspenseful. It keeps you on the edge of your seat – makes you wonder!!! The plot was good and interesting; in fact, it reflects the title. I actually found it pretty scary to watch: probably due to the suspense. The way the movie begins is what strikes me, but you have to see it in order to realise what I mean by that. It's something other similar crime movies such as the ones I mentioned earlier are unable to provide. I saw this movie particularly because I'm interested in Psychology, and it's a film that really got me to study this subject. It's a good film to watch if you're already studying Psychology. Copycat in my view is along the same lines as the other films I have mentioned. A really good movie.

Going into this, I had no idea what to think. I forget how and where I got introduced to this work of art but I am glad that I got around to watching it. It has a number of stars in it that all have their equal share of time and no one is in it more than the other. Before I begin, if you really want a suspenseful mystery that will leave you asking for more, this is certainly it.The movie begins with Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver) giving a speech at a college university and she get distracted when she supposedly sees Daryll Lee Cullum (Harry Connick, Jr.) in the audience and threatens her with a slashing across the throat gesture. She eventually gets back to business and finishes her lecture.She is then attacked by Cullum following the lecture and the police come in to stop him. Fast forward some time later where she's plagued by agoraphobia and she tries to calm herself after a nightmare that jolts her out of sleep. Then come Ruben Goetz and M.J. Monahan (Dermot Mulroney and Holly Hunter, respectively) who are called to a crime scene where the victim was strangled in the style of the "Boston Strangler."It is then they have to figure out the style of the killer before he/she kills any more people. As time wears on, the killer claims victims in the styles of the "Hillside Stranglers," "Son of Sam," and Jeffrey Dahmer...which is when things get too close to home when the killer makes Helen's assistant Andy one of his victims. After that, the police finally catch up to the "Copycat Killer" by the name of Peter Foley (William McNamara), who is nothing more than a lab tech who wants his 15 minutes of fame.Eventually Peter kills a couple more cops and then kidnaps Helen, which alerts the attention of M.J. The bold cop then finds Helen at the university where the initial attack took place with Daryll Lee. A fight ensues and Helen eventually breaks free and runs to the roof, completely forgetting about her agoraphobia. Peter saunters after her and tries to shoot her, only to be stopped by M.J....who eventually kills him.If you're not into the realm of serial killers, I advise you do some serious reading on them before you go into this movie. Even though the characters explain what the real killers have done, you will be better off knowing about them before they tell you. I guarantee that you will not regret it. Enjoy this gritty film and make sure you watch it on an empty stomach. There are some parts in here that may very well turn it if you're not used to it.

Jon Amiel's Copycat is one intense piece of work, as tightly wound as razor wire and primed to stir up the adrenal glands. Sigourney Weaver contends with not one, but two extremely vicious serial killers a lá Silence Of The Lambs, with a bit of ass kicking help from spitfire Holly Hunter. Weaver is a clinical psychologist specializing in serial killers, and like most in her cinematic profession, just happens to be a serial killer magnet as well. After narrowly escaping a perverted maniac (Harry Connick Jr.), and assisting in his capture, she retreats to the sanctuary of her San Francisco penthouse apartment in a fit of agoraphobia following the trauma. But there's another killer out there, one who meticulously recreates the crimes of others. Weaver is reluctantly coerced into helping to find him, and who better to help her than her old buddy Connick Jr.? He's an odd choice to play this type of character, but he sells it with a sickly swagger and that off kilter grin, a much more lively performance than that of the actor playing the copycat killer. Holly Hunter provides the kick in the ass that timid Weaver needs to see the job done, but there's danger around every corner, and the film earns it's hard R rating with some truly uncomfortable bits. Along for the ride is veteran actor J.E. Freeman, Will Patton and good old Dermot Mulroney as fellow cops on the case. Not as instantly iconic or memorable as many in the genre, but takes what could have easily been generic trash and gives it life, style and a sense of real, sweaty danger.

This isn't actually a terrible film by any stretch of the imagination; it's just one of those films which loses focus and is never quite sure what it wants to be.Basic outline - Sigourney Weaver plays a serial killer expert, haunted by her past, who is roped in by the police to guide them towards a serial killer operating in the city. The murderer is copying the M.O. of famous serial killers from the sixties, seventies and eighties.The problem is that even though it is ostensibly - as its title suggests - a film about Copycat killers, it feels somewhat lightweight in the amount of 'copycatting' - it feels like a tame half-baked plot line, which is more focused on Sigourney Weaver's character's past horrors. The 'copycat' idea just feels so, so underplayed - the director doesn't really work off it, it's just a vaguely interesting aside by the final reel.However, it must be said, Sigourney Weaver acts her socks off - she really does play an excellent role as an agoraphobic suffering with a chronic (understandable) case of PTSD. Holly Hunter also plays her role with gusto.However, disappointingly, the perpetrator is 2d and meaningless; after the film spent the first 10, 20 minutes explaining that a serial killer can be 'just like you and me' they didn't then justify that at all, they just roped in a cartoon (overacted) nutter.Too much is 'stock' - there is quite a jarring, wasted death which feels put in for the sake of ticking that Hollywood plot box. Police guards are literally the most useless in any film, ever. The scenes of the internet in its infancy are quite endearing, but do date the film terribly.Yeah, overall, it just feels like a missed opportunity. It's hard to believe that this and the majestic 'Se7en' came out within a month of each other; one looks, feels and plays like mid-nineties Hollywood, the other is so much more.