A Serious Candidate For the Best SF Movie Ever. Really.

Rating: 10/10 (21 June 2002)

I'm going to have to see this a second time before I declare it to be better than 2001. But I can't remember ever being so eager to go back and see a movie again.
Why is this movie so great? Because it accomplishes two different extraordinary things that, I believe, no other sf movie ever has -- things that were trademarks of Philip K. Dick.
First, it is an edge-of-your-seat thriller, with action, suspense, and numerous unexpected plot turns -- but it is simultaneously hugely thought-provoking, the way only the most fully thought-out sf is. Phil Dick's novels have the power to keep you turning pages obsessively while striking you as profoundly insightful. This is the first movie I've ever seen that pulls off this trick.
Second, it's the first movie ever to capture PKD's unique combination of horror and humor. This is a future that makes you wince and grimly laugh, simultaneously. And that tone is sustained throught the whole movie.
Needless to say, it looks fabulous. And there is even, as you would expect from Spielberg, some sentiment, but it is well-earned (primarily by Cruise, a hugely underrated actor) and had me choked up good.
Then 10 star system just doesn't do justice to a movie this great.

MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS OF TWO OF THE MOVIE'S COOLEST BITS. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, STOP READING NOW!!!!

If Phil Dick could have seen the scene where Cruise chases his own eyeballs, or the scene where he esacpes pursuit by inadvertently having a brand-new Lexus assembled around him, he would have stood up and cheered. Those are the sorts of amazingly ironic, deeply evocative images that populate his work. I'm just flabbergasted that the writers were able to come up with a screenplay that's so faithful to his vision.