Minority Report review by The Grim Ringler
Minority Report\
Yet again we have an ‘old’ movie that I missed reviewing and that has been out a while so I shall spare you a lot of crap and will cut to the chase.
This is yet another Hollywood adaptation of one of Phillip K. Dick’s stories and while I don’t know the man’s work, I would like to think he would be pleased with this film because it’s rather good. Yes, it is a summer movie, and it’s all action and Tom Cruise’s chin, but man, it’s a really good, really smart movie.
Cruise plays a tortured policeman (essentially, beats me what they call them in the movie, some faboo sci-fi name I am sure) that leads a group of elite officers in the future to crime scenes before they happen. You see, with the use of three teenagers that are psychic and work as a psychic unit, sort of like the Wondertwins but you know, there are three of them, and no purple monkey. Was the monkey purple? I forget. Anyway, these psychics are able to see future acts of violence before they occur and when this happens Cruise’s team scoots out to the scene and arrests the future perpetrator for this pre-crime. And this new law enforcement technique, controversial as it may be, is working wonderfully, and in this test city violent crime has fallen almost off the map. But Cruise is haunted by the abduction of his son and has never quite recovered from that loss, losing his marriage and becoming a drug addict because of that loss. While the pre-crime unit is having such great success though an internal investigation is launched to delve deeper into the group to make sure innocent people are not being sentenced (essentially put in a cryogenic stasis indefinitely) and convicted. And wouldn’t ya know it all of a sudden the psychics get a vision of Cruise murdering a man he has never met and suddenly he is on the run from the very people he has worked with for so long.
This is sort of a Whodunnit./Noir meets a science fiction film, and while I am awful at trying to give plot details, the film is very well done. I tell ya what, Spielberg may have the same themes in most his movies, but man, the way he tells the stories always seem new and pretty neat. This film has a weird blue look to it that makes everything seem surreal and as if there are conspiracies at work around each corner. And man, the special effects are pretty bad-ass, as they are supposed to be. And Cruise does a good job as a hunted man trying to prove his innocence by any means necessary.
All around it’s a really good movie. I have no idea why it wasn’t a bigger hit at the box office, I guess everyone was still watching Scooby-friggin’ Doo (WHY?). No, it is not Spielberg the artist this time, it’s Spielberg the pop-culture director, but dammit, when he’s on, he is pretty dead-on. A very good film and a very interesting idea to mull over (whether or not it’s right to convict someone of a crime they may commit). See it while you still have a chance
...c…
8 out of 10 Jackasses
