Showing its age

Rating: 4/10 (18 March 2012)

Saw this in the original theatrical run and was impressed at the time. It exceeded my hopes for an adaptation of one of Philip K. Dick's best stories. Flash forward 10 years and I wonder what I ever saw in it (the film, that is). Visually it holds up, though the CGI segments are looking shabby already. Action scenes are well paced, plot nuances are treated deftly. Some of the supporting roles are badly miscast--I laughed out loud at the abrupt appearance of Mike "Mind of the Married Man" Binder--but Peter Stormare and Jason Antoon were both great and Max von Sydow probably carries the film.
Still the preponderance of bad easily obscures the good. The clever bits are more or less forgettable, while Spielberg's knack for clichés and remarkably immature sense of humor stink up the film (like when the robot spiders canvass the apartment building, or when Cruise chomps down on some spoiled food, etc. etc.) Then there are the pervasive cornball Spielbergisms--anybody who remembers Close Encounters, Hook, Jurassic Park, and the rest knows what I mean. The primordial will to schmaltz is always right below the surface, even during his most imaginative and skillful storytelling. I think the worst might be when the precog is narrating to Cruise and his sickly-looking waif/wife about their kid going off to college and falling in love, blah blah blah (this unbearable moment of fake drama is soon shattered in a preposterous shift).
With the last 20 minutes the movie degenerates rapidly. In retrospect, an oddly mediocre effort!