Sabbatical Time

Rating: Null/10 (28 January 2004)

Spielberg doesn't write these things, but if your going to give him credit for the winners you got to hammer him for the duds. Another disappointing effort that literally drowns itself in cliché. There is nothing original in the plot, and worse, in the special effects which actually seemed to be done on the cheap. Didn't I see the same gravity cars in Star Wars? The concept is provocative, but nothing is done with it. It very quickly turns into Witness meets The Fugitive meets Blade Runner. You know who the bad guys are; we've seen it all done so many times before. One gets the feeling that Spielberg sees himself as the successor to Kubrick, as he attempts to play with the lighting in a vain attempt to dazzle you with image. He can't pull it off, and really shouldn't try to. A.I. redeemed itself with the final half hour of footage. This film had no such redemption in fact the resolution is the most overdone clichéd part of it all. Cruise, on the other hand, continues to solidify himself as the industry's top leading man with another great action performance, but it aint enough to rescue this.