Minor film, major performance *slight spoiler*

Rating: Null/10 (7 January 2003)

A futuristic action/suspense tale that plays out like a sprawling, souped-up, special effects-laden Twilight Zone episode with a cheesy murder mystery tacked on at the end. It's hard to remember Steven Spielberg directed because it feels like every other futuristic action/suspense tale that's come down the block for the last 15 years. The only real 'Spielberg' touches are his clever homage to his own first directorial job -the Night Gallery episode with a blind Joan Crawford- and a slight nod to the Chuck Jones-Warner Brothers cartoons -the timing in the scene where Cruise submerges himself underwater from the creepy-crawly mechanical spiders only to have one slow single drop from the tub's spout almost give him away evokes the best Road Runner & Coyote skit- and (of course) the all's-well-that-ends-well finale.
Tom Cruise is a smart man and has taken the Burt Lancaster route: both were good looking men with average talents but they both worked hard and took risks and grew into phenomenal actors. Cruise has now knocked 4 or 5 roles out of the ballpark (Jerry McGuire, Magnolia, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report) and proves once and for all that he's a great actor and a great movie star. He's become completely fearless in front of a camera and he takes the typical shlock detective-haunted-by-the-past part and invests John Anderton with dignity, compassion, and a powerfully emotional reserve that only he could bring. It's a great performance.
The wonderful Samantha Morton, Max Von Sydow, and Belushi-eyebrowed newcomer Jason Antoon supply their great talents and do fine work as the supporting players but Colin Farrell -a sexy guy in a flavor-of-the-month way- doesn't really register here: he just fades into the background.
Minority Report is worth seeing but it's hardly the deep, dark, mind-blowing social commentary people make it out to be.