"You have the right to remain amazed. You will not need an attorney because you are guilty. If you have anything to say, it is pointless. Book him Thommo!"

Rating: Null/10 (21 June 2002)

This you should know, is NOT a film sits up there on the big screen saying "Hey guys, ain't this future stuff fun? Lets rock!" It is NOT a "surface film" and requires the audience, at least the intelligent ones, to work WITH it. This will be howled down by the masses, but MINORITY REPORT shares much with VANILLA SKY. Aside from Tom Cruise wondering what the hell and WHY, things are happening to him for large chunks of the movie, there is the grotesque facial change once more, reliance on a third party for clarification of events and flashbacks that gradually fall into place.

As an interpretation - maybe "adaptation" would be more appropriate, of Philip K Dick's short story of the 50's, it is more than reasonable. That is not to say however it does not have its faults. Personally I found the fx straight-up laughable. The panoramic look of the future city with the retro-looking auto's performing their wall-climbing routines, the anti-gridlock "continuous" super-highways and the LOST IN SPACE Police choppers were disappointingly Z-Grade and at no stage dovetailed with the remarkably unchanged-looking suburban areas. The Cruise-escape sequence where he performs his aeriel ballet, musical car games and wall and ceiling demolition was juvenile Spiderman/superhero stuff and had no place in the movie. It simply cheapened the whole affair. What held the thing together was the performance of Cruise as the cop heading up the experimental "Department of Pre-crime" At this juncture I'd have to say there might just be the teeniest problem arresting and charging someone with a crime they have yet to commit simply on account of three "pre-cogs" belief that they WILL do it A first year law student would have them out before they'd rung home to say they'll be late for dinner! The script was excellent, the interiors of the Pre-Crime center suitably futuristic, although the film's grayed-out look, not far off black and white for much of the time was not so much depressing as uninteresting. Product placement was just wicked, though how many of those tricked-up Lexus's would they sell if they had them? Gotta say, I loved the spider eye-scanners. They WERE good! Anyone notice the extreme similarity between Cruise on the run here and Gary Sinise faring nor much better in the other Philip K Dick story doing the movie-house rounds currently, the sadly underperforming IMPOSTER?
The sublime impression left to me by this film however was just how awesomely brilliant BLADE RUNNER was. That WAS the future. This is Spielberg's "I know I'm as good as Ridley Scott" interpretation. He isn't! (least, not with the future!)
Really worth seeing, overlong, absolutely insane "happy families" ET type last scene, uneven and in the upshot a flawed winner! Go figure!