Creepy crawlies and a good old Barney

"Mimic" (18) Nationwide

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro follows the intriguing and unconventional 1993 vampire movie, Cronos, with his American debut, Mimic, a disappointingly dull science-fiction horror movie which invites - but fails to measure up to - comparisons with the Alien series.

Based on a short story by Donald A. Wolheim, Mimic opens in New York as Dr Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino), an entomologist, and her husband, Dr Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam), the deputy director of the Centre for Disease Control, team up to eradicate an epidemic which threatens the lives of children. Tyler recombines the DNA of various species to create a biological counteragent to the carrier of the disease. She calls this new species "the Judas breed" and with her husband's assistance, introduces it into the bio-system of the city.

Three years later, however, what seemed like a masterstroke backfires spectacularly when their genetic meddling proves to have produced a lethal breed of creatures which have learned to outwit their predators by mimicking certain physical characteristics. Coincidentally, as it happens, Dr Tyler feels the time has come for herself and her husband to procreate. Del Toro's wayward approach to the picture's potentially stimulating material involves dismissing or killing off some of the more interesting characters before the film even reaches the halfway point. Visually, his film is blandly undistinguished, taking place almost entirely in semi-darkness - by night or deep in the catacombs of Manhattan.

The creatures themselves are slimy, giant cockroaches which are designed to appear significantly more hideous and disgusting than anything in the Alien movies. And del Toro only begins to inject tension into the set-up in the movie's well-executed final section, by which time it's hard to care for the fate of anyone on screen.

The underused cast, mostly required to overreact or be chased by creatures, also includes Josh Brolin, Giancarlo Giannini, Charles S Dutton, F Murray Abraham and Norman Reedus.

"Stiff Upper Lips" (members and guests only) IFC, Dublin

On an altogether lighter note, Gary Sinyor's amusingly titled Stiff Upper Lips sets out to lampoon the profusion of British heritage movies. The Merchant-Ivory movies are the main target in this elaborate parody of A Room With A View fused with a skit on David Lean's A Passage To India, with reference to Chariots Of Fire, Gandhi and Death In Venice along the way.

The characters are stock British stereotypes, among them an arrogant, upper-class twit who bathes wearing a three-piece suit, and grovelling proles such as a rabbit-skinner (played by the late Brian Glover) who dreams of being killed at the wheels of a Rolls or a Bentley - "especially if it's driven by a member of the royal family". The movie spoofs the film-making process itself as characters are moved around to feature maximum use of scenery.

A few very funny visual gags, especially some hilarious phallic symbolism, cannot sustain this often merely silly exercise which unwisely relies all too heavily on its own strained narrative, and it defeats the best efforts of a hardworking cast that includes Prunella Scales, Samuel West, Georgina Cates and Peter Ustinov. Had it jettisoned its feeble plot and opted for a more consistently wacky approach, it might have approached the sustained humour of the best Airplane and Naked Gun movies. Instead, it barely contains enough wit for a 20-minute short, and certainly not enough for a 90-minute feature.

Harry Browne adds:

"Barney's Great Adventure" (General) Nationwide

They might be the most awkward little mites with their parents, but it seems the pre-school crowd will accept anything from Barney, the TV dinosaur. In Ireland his popularity has survived even appallingly-organised "personal appearances" - including one a couple of weeks ago to launch this movie - and his role in an overlong mess of a panto at the Point. Now he offers them this rather low-budget, poorly acted, slack-paced feature film, with a handful of new songs that would have had the late, lamented Bosco hiding in his box - and, I assure you, they'll go home loving it. The trick? A few edge-of-seat (though not scary) thrills packed into the last reel, and the familiar I Love You singalong hug-fest to finish. The film finds Barney on unfamiliar turf, however: on a farm, with three little friends and a plot that must have been designed to win the subconscious approval of born-again Christians. Nine-year-old Cody (there's a semiotic clue!) must rediscover his faith in imagination so that a mysterious creature - whose millennial coming is foretold in an ancient book and delivered by a star - can be born in a barn, where it is wrapped in Baby Bop's "blankie". I kid you not. But don't mind the grown-up. The relevant verdicts are from Louie (six): "Maybe Barney isn't just for babies after all"; and Cara (two): "I love you, you love me . . ."