Spielberg is getting like Kevin Smith

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2002)

Spoiler Alert Just as Kevin Smith's films presume a thorough knowledge of recent films (especially, of course, the Star Wars films), Spielberg, both in A.I. and now Minority Report, is beginning to make multiple references to other films. The ones I had noticed that weren't in the trivia section were:
1)The umbrella scene outside the mall, which brought to mind not only Hitchcock but also the wicker basket scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
2)Tom Cruise being set upon by the jetpack precrime officers in the alley was like Dorothy and the flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz.
3)The scene in which Det. Witwer explains the unsolved crime to Director Burgess and gets shot for his trouble is almost a scene-for-scene reshoot of Jack Vincennes explaining his unsolved crime to Capt. Dudley in L.A. Confidential.