Mercury Rising (1998)

I'd have to admit that at the start - however politically incorrect it is to say - I though that the mix of Bruce Willis as an independently minded FBI agent and Miko Hughes ("Simon") as a boy genius with very loud, and annoying, autism was going to be a difficult film to sit through. Luckily, the initial in-your-face character establishment settles down and the somewhat preposterous plot takes over quite quickly. The US Government runs a competition to see whether anyone can decipher it's supposedly unbreakable "Mercury" code and young Mr. Hughes is genuinely convincing as the young lad who can break it just by looking at the thing. When he calls in to claim his prize, all hell breaks loose and soon he and Willis are dodging the NSA and the FBI as they try to get to the bottom of this rather far-fetched, but entertaining conspiracy. This is of those films that reminds you why Willis became a star in the first place; he was never the greatest actor to take to the big screen, but he has bags of charisma and here he uses it to full effect. He and his charge bond well - given the youngster has precious little salient dialogue; and it is action-packed enough to pass the two hours in a satisfactory way. I am never sure why Alec Baldwin is cast at all - he is really a terribly wooden actor, though here he is given a run for his money by the equally stolid Chi McBride as Willis' FBI chum. It's nowhere near as bad as some people seem to think...