SnoopyStyle Psychologist Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver) is giving a guest lecture on serial killers. Daryll Lee Cullum (Harry Connick, Jr.) surprises her in the bathroom and kills her police protection. Thirteen months later, she has become agoraphobic haunted by the experience. There is a serial killer is on the loose in San Francisco and she figures out his m.o. of copying other famous serial killers. M.J. Monahan (Holly Hunter) and Reuben Goetz (Dermot Mulroney) are the investigative officers and they recruit her to help.Sure, it's the same old serial killer movie. It does add a couple of interesting wrinkles and with solid female leads. Hunter is confident and fully realized. Weaver and her point of view deliver a sincere and fragile personality. The movie opens with the memorable bathroom attack. The other memorable aspect is Weaver struggling in her home. The investigation and the serial killer are less compelling. This follows the formula and it does it pretty well.

revolucion-567-39394 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.

Leofwine_draca This passable serial killer thriller has a fair share of shocks and plot twists along the way to make it consistently entertaining and the running time feels only a little too long. There's a nice glossy look to the film although sometimes it looks as if things are too bright: most of this film's scenes either take place in bright light, or in total darkness. There's little in-between, and some of the gloomy atmosphere of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (a big influence) may have come in handy here.Initially, the characters of Sigourney Weaver (reclusive type) and Holly Hunter are extremely irritating, but they gradually grow on you and you actually begin to care about them (if not warm to them) as the film progresses. That's character development for you; I would advise you to stick with it, though, as it takes a while to get used to Hunter's incredibly annoying, high-pitched voice. Weaver proves herself yet again to be a resourceful heroine, here battling the demons inside her head as well as the manic killer. Her character's agoraphobia is a classic plot point in the tradition of Hitchcock or de Palma (certain scenes are very reminiscent of BODY DOUBLE) and you can guarantee that it'll come back to haunt her just at the wrong moment. Dermot Mulroney makes the most of his small, likable role as a young police detective.There's little in the way of violence, aside from a couple of throat-slashings, although the killer's demise is a nice spectacular shooting. One scene in the film I found to be incredibly disturbing and distasteful - the moment where Weaver receives a movie file through her email - but there's little else here that'll frighten you. Instead, the bulk of the film is of the typical police procedural nature, with our protagonists piecing together clues and discovering murder victims. The killer's motive and M.O. is nicely different from normal though and a good plot device. Otherwise, this is sound, if not incredibly exciting, viewing, which will keep you watching.

Lee Eisenberg In her most famous role, Sigourney Weaver battled a bloodthirsty alien. Part of what was significant about that role was that the role got written for a man, but she convinced them to turn the character into a woman. Jon Amiel's "Copycat" also stars her, and also features a role originally written for a man but changed to a woman (Holly Hunter's character). I didn't find "Copycat" to be a great movie, but I liked how they build everything up. Probably my favorite scene was the video that turns the woman in the bathtub into the dancing hippie, but what Sigourney Weaver's character does during the climax is its own experience.Personally, I wish that there were more movies in which women get tough against danger. If this movie is any indication, Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter would be two of the ideal cast members for such a movie. "Copycat" probably won't be for everyone, but I recommend it.