YMMV / Copycat

• Complete Monster:
  • Peter Foley, obsessed with his own fame and ego, accepts a mission by infamous Serial Killer Daryll Lee Cullum to kill Cullum's arch-nemesis, Dr. Helen Hudson, so as to use the opportunity to make himself a legend. Foley began killing people in ways reminiscent of serial killers of the past, from The Boston Strangler to The Son of Sam, murdering numerous women throughout the film. When the police locate Foley after he killed Helen's best friend, Andy, Foley murders his own wife and tries to blow up dozens of police officers while they search his house. Kidnapping Helen, Foley reenacts her traumatizing experience at the hands of Cullum, hanging her by a noose and killing a police officer, planning to torture her to death. In the end, when an officer gives him the chance to surrender, Foley still attempts to gun her down.
  • Daryll Lee Cullum himself is a sadistic serial killer who was arrested years ago for burning two women alive, and although he tried to get off easy with an Insanity Defense, Cullum was revealed to be totally cognizant by Dr. Helen Hudson's analysis. Enraged at Hudson for exposing his ruse, Cullum escaped custody, killed her police bodyguard, and viciously assaulted her after hanging her from a noose. Still holding a grudge years later even after Hudson was left traumatized by the attack, Cullum is revealed to have been the one who pushed Peter Foley into becoming a serial killer himself, hoping to use him as an agent of vengeance against Hudson with no care to the extra bodies Foley leaves in his wake. Cullum ends the film by shrugging off Foley's defeat and death, going on to draft another of his "disciples" into hunting down and killing Hudson for him.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Both Harry Connick Jr. and Holly Hunter, who both acted in this film, would later both voice act in Brad Bird's animated films. Connick did voice work in The Iron Giant (which was distributed by Warner Bros., which also distributed Copycat), while Hunter did voice work in Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles and its sequel.
  • A handsome young serial killer with shaggy hair wields a buck knife after his identity has been exposed. Fast forward a year later . Even better is that Dermot Mulroney would later play the killer in a sequel.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Reuben's slight flirtation with Helen and MJ's lingering romantic tension with another detective still add absolutely nothing to the plot.

---