great flick --- unfortunately has Tom Cruise

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2003)

This is a great story -- what if in the year 2054, the goverment has an experiment that uses "precognitive" people whose sole purpose is to stay unconscious and foretell crimes, then have a special "pre-crime" police force arrest the perpetrators BEFORE the crime is committed? This eradicates homicide in the District of Columbia (which, in the early 1990s, was known as the Murder Capitol of the World.)
However --- where do human rights begin and where do they end? The criminals have not technically committed the crime for which they are arrested, and there is no subsequent trial. And what about the rights of the "pre-cogs", as they are called, to live a real life?
It's interesting, except the aging Tom Cruise is there playing yet another variation of his role in Top Gun. It is so cloying now to see Mr. Unibrow-and-Queasy-Smile dress all in black and pretend to be some type of policeman whose job involves a lot of running. ugh. Should have had Russell Crowe or Ed Norton, just to mix it a bit!