Tweekums Art Jeffries is an undercover FBI agent who has crossed his superiors and been given jobs that might be considered beneath somebody of his experience. Simon Lynch is a nine-year old autistic boy with a talent for puzzles; one day Simon solves a puzzle and calls the number encoded within it. The puzzle is a test of an 'unbreakable' code, known as 'Mercury', crucial to the protection of key US assets and those behind it will go to any measure to hide the fact that it can be cracked... including murder. Simon's parents are killed and he is reported missing; Agent Jeffries is called in and finds Simon hiding. The murder is made to look like murder-suicide but he is unconvinced; soon it becomes apparent that Simon is still in danger although at this point Jeffries has no idea why. If he is to protect Simon he will have to uncover why is being hunted and by whom.While this isn't Bruce Willis's best action thriller it is still pretty solid. There are plenty of exciting action set pieces and a decent central story. It does require some suspension of disbelief... not only the idea that Simon could crack a modern code just by looking at it but also that somebody would commit murder to 'protect America' when Simon's actions don't pose a threat; they merely show the code wasn't as good as everybody thought. This isn't too much of a problem though as the story moves at a good pace and it is only when it is over one thinks of such matters. Films of this type often have an unnecessary romance and I thought this might too but that cliché was nicely avoided. Bruce Willis does a fine job as agent Art Jeffries and Alec Baldwin is suitably villainous as bad-guy Nick Kudrow. The stand out performance comes from young Miko Hughes who gives a great performance as Simon. Overall I wouldn't call this a must see but it is still well worth watching if you are a fan of the genre.

paulclaassen How professionals in the industry could concoct such an unconvincing film is completely beyond me! Nothing in this film makes sense. A billion-dollar code hidden in a Puzzle magazine for kids - come on!! The things the characters do in the film is so pathetically dumb. There were just so many flaws and terrible coincidences that I would write a short story if I were to highlight them all, so enough said! This was simply awful!

Python Hyena Mercury Rising (1998): Dir: Harold Becker / Cast: Bruce Willis, Miko Hughes, Alec Baldwin, Chi McBride, Kim Dickins: This is a cliché burdened action farce with a ridiculous title. Bruce Willis plays an F.B.I agent put in charge of protecting a nine year old autistic savant who cracks a top secret code in a puzzle book. This upsets National Security Agent Alec Baldwin who orders the termination of the boy, which has already happened to his parents. Directed by Harold Becker who made Sea of Love and The Boost. Here he must work around dreary writing and stupid clichés and nothing he throws at the board seems to stick with any form of originality. Willis is likable but is he is doing nothing differently since his success with Die Hard. So he is there basically to beat the living snot out of bad guys. Miko Hughes whines a lot going into spasms. Perhaps it is his reaction to the reality that appearing in this film will follow him around for the rest of his life. Baldwin as the villain is a joke. Anyone who plots to kill a child has head trauma to begin with but with Baldwin, this guy is suppose to be sophisticated. Chi McBride and Kim Dickins also pop up in one of the many flat supporting roles. There is nothing of interest that viewers haven't already seen before. It is a dull story that never rises but viewers have that option before the film ends to rise and leave. Score: 1 / 10

david-sarkies I would call this movie a mum movie, because it is the type of movie that my mum would go and see, mixed with an action movie. I say this is because it is about an FBI agent who has to look after an autistic child while assassins are trying to kill him because the child is able to crack the governments super code.Now as for plot and theme there is little to discuss. I didn't hate this movie, but I can't really rave about it as well. One of the major things about the movie is that it is opening our eyes to the existence of autistic people. The main point of the movie is the struggle that the FBI agent (Bruce Willis) has in trying to protect the boy. The autistic boy is played incredibly well and is very convincing.It is interesting how we tend to take these people foregranted and we do not really know how capable they are. The bad guy refers to them as nature's mistake, yet the mistake is that this boy sees straight through the code without a second thought. He doesn't try and even work it out, he just simply sees the message and follows the instructions. Simon, the autistic child, is not stupid, rather he just sees things differently and we, in our blind state, don't really understand this.I actually think this is a good little movie which deals with the fact that we have autistic children in our society. We don't want to believe that they are there and when we see them we ignore them, or try to, but the problem is is that they need help. Both of Simon's parents are killed and because of that he is left all alone. He cannot look after himself and it takes Willis a lot of work to actually get Simon to trust him, and even then it is hard because he knows that he should not trust strangers. This movie is a little slow but an eye opener, especially if you have never had any experience with these people.