Gee Whiz

Rating: 6/10 (24 June 2002)

I am not a huge Tom Cruise fan. But I have seen pretty much everything he's done. He can carry a movie (Eyes Wide Shut) or destroy it (Far and Away) when he is allowed to engage the audience. To me this film just exacerbates the trend towards relying on effects to carry the film where plot development and acting didn't quite pull it off. I would love to Ask Steve Spielberg: Was it Emily Dickinson who said "A Wooden way / Regardless grown, / A Quartz contentment, like a stone-- / This is the Hour of Lead"? She had it just about right, Steve, but I think it was 2 plus hours of lead. And Max Von Sydow  sure he is a great Villain, but you can't help but guess the entire second half of the movie when he shows up in a position of authority. Can't we get a bit of a tease before we run smack dab into the wall of the Hollywood ending? Samantha Morton has her moments but the plot line really lets her down in the "mall scene." If she can predict the idiosyncrasies of who recognizes whom, when and how to trip the pursuers, why is there any crime @ all? All of the sudden she can predict everything? Finally The lighting, the palette is straight out of "Gattaca." Andrew Niccol does it and he gets panned as too distracting Spielberg steals it "tint for tone" and he is a genius? See it and decide for yourself. Where is the man who did "Saving Private Ryan"? Is he just too busy to have any passion for directing?