Minority Report

The best film to date so far this year as of 8/02! This film is about a John (Tom Cruise) who is haunted by the disappearance of his young son many years ago. To cope with the grief he works at a crime pervanetion network founded by Lamar Burgess (Max Von Sydow) that can predict murders and stop them before they occur. However, one day while at work Tom Cruise is shocked to discover that it is saying he will be the next person to try and commit murder. John thinks that an agent named Danny (Colin Farrell) who is investigating the the unit is trying to set him up. To add to the problems, the person John is accused of trying to murder is a person he does not even know and it says John will kill him in 48 hours.

Fast paced, exciting and deeply moving & thought provoking film. Tom Crusie does good work here. Colin turns in a deliciously nasty performance. However the film belongs to Max Von Sydow who is absolutely genius here. Director Speilberg treats the audience to some highly original and creative visual effects and has presented us with a fun story that covers all the bases. The ending is especially good.

Rated PG-13; Violence and Profanity.

Steven Spielberg sets Minority Report in the near future of 2054, in which the technology is advanced, but not far-fetched. Cars can drive themselves and ride up elevators, computers come with holograms as a user interface, and stores recognize you from your eyeball scan. As all science fiction fans know, however, the genre is not about technology but about ideas. The big idea for Minority Report is based on a short story by the venerable Philip K. Dick. In this future, there is a "pre-crime" unit in the police force, which revolves around three psychics who are able to see violent crimes before they occur. These visions are projected in a flat screen panel and manipulated by detectives with the grace of a symphony conductor. Equipped with futuristic stun guns, jet packs, and search robots, these cops then arrest and intern the criminals before the crimes are committed.

We learn all this in the first ten minutes of the movie. After this introduction, the plot really starts when Detective John Anderton (Tom Cruise) finds out that the precogs saw him kill someone, someone that he has never met. He finds himself in a race. With the forced recruitment of a precog, Agatha (Samantha Morton), he must clear his name before the predetermined murder. All the while, his old buddies, now helped with a special agent from the FBI (Colin Farrell), are trying to track him down.

Spielberg, with Janusz Kaminski, his cinematographer for many films, have crafted a visually stunning movie. The special effects are seamlessly incorporated of the world they created. The muted blues echo the style of black & white film noirs. John Anderton is similar to noir's morally ambiguous characters--a good cop with an illegal habit that is forced (by circumstances and desire) to betray the very things he loves.

But this is not just a special effects or mystery movie. The characters, all well drawn, are supremely acted by the cast. Tom Cruise is a good physical actor and he shows it here. By the way he sits or walks, we can intuit the grief and confusion that's going through him. Samantha Morton does a good job of portraying a haunted young lady who has seen too much. Colin Farrell skillfully balances the ambitious and professional sides of his character. As always, Max von Sydow authoritatively plays the respected father figure.

This is one of my favorite Science Fiction films. I would also recommend the following films. These (I think) influenced Minority Report.

"The Maltese Falcon" ~ film noir "A Clockwork Orange" ~ science fiction "Blade Runner" ~ science fiction (also based on a Dick story)

***** out of *****

Before they joined forces to give sci-fi fans their hugely disappointing version of War Of The Worlds, Spielberg and Cruise worked together on Minority Report, a near-future tale based on a short story by Philip K. Dick in which violent crimes can be predicted and prevented from occurring, the perpetrator intercepted before they can carry out the deed. Star Cruise plays pre-crime cop John Anderton, who finds himself on the run after it is predicted that he himself will commit a murder.

The good news is that Minority Report is a lot more enjoyable than the duo's H.G.Wells debacle, with an engrossing murder mystery plot, lots of great visuals, excellent production design, and some well executed and extremely fun action set-pieces, all of which help detract from the story's inevitable paradoxical issues and Spielberg's occasional, frustratingly unrestrained direction (Cruise leaping from car roof to car roof on a towering vertical road stretches plausibility a bit too far, but at least it's not 'nuke the fridge' bad).

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for the 'sick stick' a police baton that makes the victim projectile vomit.

This gets high marks for being an involving film that, despite a long length of almost two- and-a-half hours, keeps ones interest all the way. Being a Stephen Spielberg-directed film, it's no surprise that the photography is first-rate. This is nice-looking movie. Tom Cruise also was very good in here, not the obnoxious character he sometimes portrays (or did more often in his younger days.).

The film is a good mixture of action and suspense. Only the one chase scene was overdone with Rambo-like mentality of the good guys not getting hit when they should, and vice- versa.

The subject matter is interesting, too: what would do you (or the police) had very reliable information on crimes that were about to be committed, that you could prevent things from happening before they actually did?

I recognized two people in here who went on shortly thereafter to become recognizable in TV series: Kathryn Morris ("Cold Case") and Neal McDonough ("Boomtown"). Add Colin Farrell, Max Von Sydow, Samantha Morton and you have an interesting cast. I am of the opinion that this is one of Spielberg's underrated gems.

It's the year 2054 and mankind through the good graces of pioneering criminologist Max Von Sydow we're about to abolish crime all together. Von Sydow employs three psychics, no doubt the three best in the world and while it looks life is a pretty dull thing for them, spending all that time in water the better to receive images they're doing yeoman service to mankind anticipating murders to come. Right at the beginning of the film we see them in action as police are dispatched to capture Arye Gross as he's about to murder his wife and her boy toy.

But some disturbing images come in regarding police chief Tom Cruise murdering a man who he doesn't even know. Now Cruise is a Richard Kimble like fugitive and he hasn't done the terrible deed he's supposed to do. But one of the water bound psychics turns in a different interpretation of the images she sees. It's that Minority Report that Cruise is interested in so Samantha Morton is taken by Tom who wants very much to find out what's going so he can alter his destiny if possible.

I won't say more other than destinies can be altered and images can be manipulated and wrongly interpreted by some malevolent forces at work.

Cruise and Von Sydow and the rest of the cast turn in some fine performances for Steven Spielberg. And Spielberg's own vision of the future is fascinating. I did love those images of horses making a comeback as a method of transportation. I'm guessing that fossil fuels had polluted the planet enough and we wanted biodegradable waste once again.

Science fiction is always interesting, even the worst future films offer us someone's vision of the future be Steven Spielberg or Ed Wood. Spielberg at least has the talent to bring it off.

And maybe crime prevention taken to its ultimate is not such a good thing. Watch Minority Report and see how you feel.