Mercury Rising MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +3 Content: -2

Art Jeffrey (Bruce Willis), one of the FBI's best undercover agents, loses control when a field commander orders a raid on a separatist group holding hostages at a bank. Teenage boys are needlessly killed and an angry Art hits his field commander. As a reprimand, he is given duty on minor jobs. But a routine missing child case turns sinister when Art sees unusual clues in the parents' supposed murder/suicide. Art finds the boy, Simon (Miko Hughes), hiding in the house and spoils a murder attempt on the boy. Art learns Simon is autistic, but has a special genius for solving puzzles. He easily deciphers a secret government code placed in a puzzle book as a test by the code makers. Lt. Col Nicholas Kudrow (Alec Baldwin) designed the code and will do anything to keep it safe. To him, Simon is a threat and needs to be eliminated. Only Art can stop Kudrow and keep Simon safe. The action is tense and the stunts spectacular. Miko Hughes does an outstanding job portraying the autistic Simon. Mercury Rising is sure to please Die-Hard fans as well as less action-oriented viewers.

Like many action films, the violence is severe at times. There are multiple graphic shootings during the bank raid. Several people are shot by automatic rifles or pistols many times. Art has recurring dreams of the teenagers being shot. Several killings performed by Kudrow's assassin show bullet holes in clothes or heads. One scene shows flying broken glass cutting a man's face and a body falling off a tall building through a glass skylight. Art rescues Simon from walking into an oncoming train and again from traffic as Simon walks, lost in autistic thought. Art takes pills several times but later gives them up. There are some tender moments between Simon and his father and when Art tries to make Simon understand he's a friend after the boy's parents die. Unfortunately, foul language further mars the film with 12 f- and 5 s-words as well as using God's name in vain 10 times. The graphic violence and unacceptable language causes Mercury Rising to fall below our standards.

Preview Reviewer: Paul Bicking
Distributor: Universal Pictures, 100 Universal Plaza, Universal City, CA 91608]