Product placement is the future

Rating: Null/10 (21 June 2002)

I see there are almost 40 reviews on the board already and i wouldn't want to repeat what many people have said. In short, the movie is very well made and well acted but the story is floating in plot holes...

Like someone said on the board before, the story makes sense while you sit in the theater, but the moment you leave, you'll start to see each plot hole appear and at the end, the whole story sinks in one. Just to list a few: (spoilers!!!) The eye id system is not updated when someone is wanted by the police, so security doors still open. There is a secret tunnel leading to the Temple? The precogs can get someone's name and image but not their location? The whole set-up within a set-up is great for dramatic purposes but way too complicated: it would have been simpler to send the guy on a mission out of D.C. and have him shot there... Why is there a huge emergency drain in the precogs'pool?
Something funny. (more spoilers) The movie has two endings... I nearly left the theater after the prison scene, which would have made a perfect, yet depressing, end. The second end is 100% Spielberg, any more sugar and my glucose meter would have exploded.
My only real beef with the movie: Product placement. Is Dreamworks so strapped for cash that half the scenes must contain product placement? Lexus, Pepsi, Gap, Ben and Jerry's, Bulgari, one hotel chain, more Lexus, and on and on... One good point, I learned that in the future, Lexus cars will be made in America: One more victory for the United Auto Workers Union! This whole product placement thing made me feel ripped off.. Why am i paying the full ticket price if the movie is so sponsored? Next time, let's skip the subtleties and have Tom Cruise turn to the camera, hold up his watch and say "Good golly, i can show up on time for my appointment because I use this great Bulgari watch!"