Spielberg jumps the shark!

Rating: 3/10 (18 February 2005)

Despite the expectedly fine visual-design-cum-special-effects, I knew this film was in trouble when the two leads admit to each other that they decided to devote their lives to fighting "pre-crime" after close family members were murdered. Gee, how many times have we heard THAT one?
And so it goes. At the heart of it, "Minority Report" is a very routine crime thriller in the guise of a futuristic vision. Predictable plotting, hackneyed dialog, and embarrassingly poor acting (most of the exaggerated secondary characters almost seem to be in a different movie from the deadpan performances by Cruise, Farrell, and von Sydow) can't be redeemed by the multitude of we've-seen-it-all-before action sequences and chase scenes. And the obligatory Spielberg nods toward the importance of family and the near-holiness of children are only dreary reminders that he seems once again (as in his "fallow period" of the late 80s) incapable of keeping Hallmark-card sentimentality out of his work. Maybe he needs to go back to making WWII movies?