Wonderful character development!

Boring, long, and too preachy.

Am I Missing Something?

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

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!

Greetings from Lithuania.While "Mercury Rising" (1998) is a far from anything very special, fascinating, highly exciting or even great, it not bad movie overall, the one to which you won't probably come back anytime soon after seeing it once.Performances were OK for this flick, with one exception - Miko Hughes did a great job in portraying Simon, the central figure in this story in my opinion. And the best thing in this movie except for his acting was the story itself in my opinion. It has got a great core elements that could have been made into a great movie. But the script is flawed, more then a little to say the least. Directing was OK for this script, nothing very exciting, just not bad. Overall, "Mercury Rising" had a great story, which if would have been more tightly and exciting written would made this movie great to which you could return more then one time. Now it is definitely not a bad movie for what it is overall.

Despite having a soft spot for this movie, I don't own it and have not seen it in years, so when it was on TV last night I watched it with my 15 year old son.Plot In A Paragraph: The NSA has developed unbreakable code which they call MERCURY. They test it by putting it in a puzzle magazine. Simon Lynch, an autistic boy who has an affinity for puzzles sees it and deciphers it and calls the NSA. Kudrow (Alec Baldwin) the head in charge of MERCURY worried what might happen if this gets out orders that Simon be terminated. The man he sends kills his parents but is unable to find Simon and leaves when the police arrive. An FBI Agent who is in the bad books Art Jeffries (Brice Willis) finds Simon, who was hiding and takes him to the hospital. While there, the assassin takes another try but Art saves Simon and they go on the run.Alec Baldwin is awful and some awful CGI and green screen DUI why should be intense moments, but that is more than made up for by the performances of both Bruce Willis (who is as charismatic as always) and even more so by Miko Hughes, who is simply superb as Simon.My fifteen year old laughed at the wrong moments a few times ("how fake does that look??") but overall he enjoyed it, and I still think it's an above average Bruce Willis flick.

The novel 'Simple Simon' was written by Ryne Pearson and easily transferred to the silver screen, where it was directed expertly by Harold Becker. The movie tells the story of an autistic boy named Simon Lynch (Miko Hughes) who incredibly is able to decipher a top secret code created by the N.S.A. When the secret is uncovered, the top executive, Nick Kudrow (Alec Baldwin) believes his network of undercover agents and their identifies are in danger of being compromised and therefor orders a top assassin to execute Simon and his parents. The only defense for the boy is Art Jeffries (Bruce Willis) a burned-out F.B.I agent who despite his short-comings is a tough-as-nails individual who learns Simon is a very special child and soon bonds with him. Along the way and amid the encroaching danger Jeffries receives help from Stacey a coffee shop patron (Kim Dickens) and fellow FBI agent Tommy B. Jordan (Chi McBride) The film is a combination of intrigue, murder and suspense with excitement filling in all the gaps. Willis and Hughes give a heartwarming and endearing performance. Recommended. ****