2/4  Copycat Quick Review
One of those thrillers that come and go by so fast that you'll see three more like it and forget about it. There's nothing particularly good or bad here, it's just pretty basic. Decent but nothing you won't see again and again and again.

5/5 Underrated
  by Samantha Myers
Very original story with great acting. If you like horror then add this to your collection

3/5 2.5 stars out of 4
  by One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
The Bottom Line:

Copycat earned some plaudits upon its release, but its a basically straightforward thriller that sits much more comfortably next to Kiss the Girls than Silence of the Lambs; by way of example, within 20 minutes any attentive viewer should be able to guess which extraneous character is doomed by the law of character economy.

5/5 Copycat
  by David W. Nielsen (Portland OR)
For lovers of police drama, this movie is a must see. Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter are superb. Holly Hunters outfits are quite nice.

4/5 Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter make this an enjoyable and gruesome excursion into serial killing
  by C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)
"Screams of the victim deaden his pain. The act of killing makes him feel intensely alive. What he feels next is not guilt but disappointment. It was not as wonderful as he'd hoped. Maybe next time it will be perfect." --Dr. Helen Hudson speaking on serial killers.

Copycat is a first-class psychological serial killer/diller/thriller nearly undone by a conventional slasher/thriller climax. The end works well enough, but once you've seen one jump-out-and-scare-us, spray-in-the-face, last-minute-save cliché you've seen them all. The only difference in the clichés is how close we get to the blade going in, the skull cap blasting off, and the last minute twist being irrelevant to the story.

What makes Copycat so superior to the others can be summed up in two names: Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. Weaver plays Helen Hudson, an authority on serial killers, in demand for lectures, consulted by the police, and a smart woman. That all changes when she is attacked by a serial killer and barely survives. The guy winds up in prison for life. Hudson winds up a prisoner, too. Thirteen months later we can see that she's been so traumatized that she has turned her apartment into a fortress. She's too frightened to venture outside. She needs liquor to get through the hours and pills and paper bags to deal with the panic attacks. She trusts few others. She deals with life through her computer. She's still an authority on serial killers, but her life has become a wasteland. (She does have that terrific San Francisco apartment.} Then she discovers that there is a new killer at work, one who mimics the style of killing that other serial killers have used. When she tells the police that recent, horrible murders are being committed by one madman, that brings us to Holly Hunter, who plays police inspector M. J. Monahan.

Monahan is quick, smart, feisty, small and, yeah, kinda cute. She's also tough enough to make big, male cops nervous. She's friendly, she's liked, she's prickly and no one doubts who's in charge when she's on a case. Dead bodies don't bother her too much. Monahan is a pro. Between Hudson's knowledge of serial killers, as wracked out as she is, and Monahan's gritty persistence, it's not long before we...then Hunt...then Monahan...realize Hunt has become the target for the copycat killer's affections. Now we're in the middle of a stylish, murderous cat-and-mouse game. Monahan, working with the difficult, isolated Hudson, is determined to capture this man. And the serial killer is going to go after Hudson, locked away in her fortress of an apartment.

Copycat gives us every old favorite in the book...darkened hallways, closed shower curtains, empty bathrooms, cops tricked off their assignments, ingenious ways to kill...and they still work. In an added twist, the current killer seems somehow to be able to communicate to the man who attacked Hunter and who now is in a secured slammer.

The only real drawback, if one doesn't mind too much the standard scares at the end, is the movie's length...more than two hours. If the director had had the energy to lop off 20 minutes the way the serial killer lops off lives, the movie, in my view, would have been even better. Even so, Copycat is a fine, intelligent movie made special by Hunter and Weaver, and with effective performances by Will Patton, Dermot Mulroney and a really unpleasant Harry Connick, Jr. The score is low-key and evocative. There's even a song by Sting and Andy Summers that the killer seems particularly fond of:

It's murder by numbers, one, two, three
It's as easy to learn as your a b c
Murder by numbers, one, two, three
It's as easy to learn as your a b c

Now if you have a taste for this experience
And you're flushed with your very first success
Then you must try a twosome or a threesome
And you'll find your conscience bothers you much less

Because it's murder by numbers, one, two, three
It's as easy to learn as your a b c.

The DVD looks very good. There's a "making of" extra and a commentary by the director.

5/5 Creepy good.
  by ADRIENNE MILLER (TENNESSEE)
Copycat starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter is the best cat and mouse game of all-time. Released in 1995, I still find this film intriguing and nail-biting. The two stars are dynamite together, look out for a creepy Harry Connick Jr. who plays a copycat serial killer. Dermot Mulroney also stars, this guy is so under-used! I love, love, love this thriller, gotta see this one, enjoy!