“Mercury Rising” is a silly and predictable yet fun thriller movie starring Bruce Willis (“Die Hard”, “The Sixth Sense”). Despite a couple of real idiotic things, this movie succeeds because of the performances.

In “Mercury Rising”, Willis is F.B.I. agent Art Jeffries, who finds himself caught in the middle of a massive government conspiracy, all because an autistic boy named Simon (Miko Hughes “Apollo 13”, “Kindergarten Cop”) innocently cracked America’s defence code and rang up a secret government department. Now Simon’s life is in danger and Jeffries is the only one who can save him but not far behind is one of the government’s top assassins (Lindsey Ginter “S.W.A.T.”).

I really like the performances given by Bruce Willis and the young boy Miko Hughes and their interaction is also great. My favourite character/performance however is the ruthless government superior Nick Kudrow, played by Alec Baldwin (“The Hunt For Red October”, “Beetlejuice”) and it’s a shame he doesn’t get more screen time. The conversation he has with Willis in a wine cellar is actually quite interesting as we see Baldwin isn’t playing a villain as such but rather someone who has to do questionable things to protect his nation. I also like the assassin, who really reminds you of the T-1000 from “Terminator 2”.

“Mercury Rising” is stupid in the sense that without any form of key Simon cracks the code but it’s things like this that show the film isn’t taking itself too seriously and therefore we can sit back and relax. I also would like to praise the action scenes, although there aren’t too many of them and they aren’t amazing. I’d put this in the same league as movies such as “Chain Reaction”, which a thriller with a goofy side as well as featuring a big star (that one has Keanu Reeves from “The Matrix”).