Old-Fashioned, Solid Sci-Fi

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2013)

Yes, it borrows lots from 'Total Recall', 'Matrix', etc. Yes, there are plot holes. Yes, there's the obligatory futuristic dwelling with impossibly gleaming floors and Danish Modern furniture. But this is simply a well-made sci-fi epic, and that's a rare beast these days (see my review of the ghastly 'Prometheus'). It could use a little editing to tighten and better set up the big plot surprise, which I confess threw me; I thought it was a temporal issue. Still, Cruise does his Cruise thing very well, Sally is wonderfully menacing, the concepts were fresh or freshened, the last 30 minutes keeps you nicely fixated, and, most amazing of all, Morgan Freeman isn't annoying in his Mystical Black Man turn.