Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, But Not As Good As It Could Have Been
Review: Stephen Spielberg's latest sci-fi/action film "Minority Report" is certainly a massive special-effects hit, but great special effects and a superstar actor cannot always compensate for a weakened story and predictability. The film is based upon the brilliant short-story (of the same name) that was written by Philip K Dick (1928-1982), who also wrote "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". Unfortunately, the original story was changed to better accommodate the film's lead actor, Tom Cruise.Set in the U.S. in 2053, Americans have ceded many constitutional freedoms, privacy and protections to a new totalitarian federal agency whose sole purpose is to predict and prevent murders before they happen. The agency, headed by Director Lamar Burgess (Max Von Sydow), predicts murders by using the skills of three people highly gifted with precognitive extrasensory perception. The three "precogs" (as they are called) are regarded as being infallible, especially by Tom Cruise's character, John Anderton, who is one of the agency's star detectives. (In the original story, John Anderton was the police commissioner.) To John's great disbelief, the precogs predict that he will commit a murder of someone that he does not know. Like anyone else so accused, John runs to avoid the same fate as all other people accused and easily convicted of pre-crime: imprisonment via suspended animation. Much of the film is devoted to John running from pre-crime detectives while he attempts to determine the identity of his supposed victim. During the high-tech chase (Hollywood sure loves chase scenes), Spielberg highlights many special effects. These included cars that can drive along vertical surfaces and electronic billboards that cater their advertisements to each person after scanning and identifying each from his/her retina. The billboards enhanced the film's Orwellian flavor. Minor performances in the film include Lois Smith (who played Kathy in the 1980 film "Resurrection" and Aunt Meg in the 1996 action film "Twister") as Dr. Iris Hineman, a good performance by Samantha Morton as the precog Agatha, and an excellent performce by Peter Stormare as black-market eye surgeon Dr. Solomon Eddie. Plot twists used in the film's ending scenes (which totally abandoned Philip K. Dick's original ending) were highly reminiscent of an earlier Tom Cruise film, "Mission Impossible". Tom Cruise's formulaic portrayal of John Anderton was, unfortuneately, typical of many past egocentric characters including Lt. 'Maverick' Mitchell in "Top Gun", Charlie Babbit in "Rain Man", Lt. Kaffee in "A Few Good Men", Mitch McDeere in "The Firm", Jerry in "Jerry Maquire", Frank Mackay in "Magnolia" and Ethan Hunt in "Mission Impossible", to name a few. Though the film is entertaining, it is doubtful that "Minority Report" will attain the same level of respect and appreciation in the sci-fi community as "Blade Runner", which was based upon "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and directed by Ridley Scott (It would be interesting to see how Ridley Scott would have interpreted Philip K. Dick's short story and who he would have chosen to star in the film.) With its Orwellian portrayal of the future, morbid humor, cyberpunk sets and great special effects, but less than stellar portrayal of the original story, "Minority Report" earns a reserved 4-star rating. It also shows that combining a superstar director with a superstar actor doesn't necessarily result in an infallible film.
Rating:
Summary: A Minority Report on "Minority Report"
Review: As I see it, the problem with many of the reviews of this movie is that they miss the ultimate point of "Minority Report." While it is an action/sci-fi movie, and it does feature lots of special effects and various ideas about the future, these are not really the point of the movie. Nor is Cruise's decent performance as the wrongly accused protagonist.
As I see it, there are two issues this movie is trying to examine. First, and somewhat obviously, "Minority Report" deals with the question of predestination. Is our future set, with no ability to make real, free choices? Even about something as important as whether or not we will commit murder? As it should, "Minority Report" does not fully answer this question, but does a decent job of setting it forth in a way that it can be popularly understood and discussed.
Second, "Minority Report" tries to deal with a great moral problem: whether or not it is morally right to create a perfect society if it requires the sacrifice of an innocent, thereby relegating that innocent person to purely a means or tool for the establishment of this society? While it is not set out in such a complicated way in "Minority Report," it seems to me that Speilberg wanted to deal with this same issue. Rather than killing the innocents, they are dehumanized and treated as objects (the precogs who predict the future). The conclusions that Speilberg reaches in "Minority Report" are clearly applicable to this means-ends question, and are presented in the friendly, narrative style that Speilberg generally uses.
In any case, this is a truly thoughtful and thought-provoking movie that was sadly maligned by many caught up in the exciting chase scenes and strong special effects. Most critics also apparently missed the point of the story, and so it did not receive the support it deserved.
This movie is not perfect, and not for everyone. But for those interested in thinking about the future, or with a philosophical bent, there are things here worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie, average special features
Review: I've seen some really cool special features on some Sc-fi DVDs, the documentaries on 'Star Wars: Episode II' are a good example. But the technical work-ups for 'Minority Report' are less than satisfactory. The movie, in case you don't know, is centered around a Pre-crime Officer, played by Cruise, who is targeted for arrest for the future murder of a man he doesn't know. The insuing chase shows off some really cool technology, including a sonic-pulse gun that cocks by spinning it around, and a baton that makes you throw up. However the special features barely even mention how they were concieved. The mystery of the film is an entrancing roller-coaster with Sherlock Holmes calibur detectives (this was we can thank classic sci-fi writer Phillip K. Dick for) and stunning visual scapes that range from a peaceful country house by the ocean, to a huge magnetic super-highway system. But, once again, the special features don't tell us anything interesting about them, just a brief run-down of where the ideas came from. It's really disapointing that you get a great movie, with multi-layered mysteries intertwining to create a finale that is both exciting and philosophical, and then get special features so shallow in their content that it hardly seems worth the effort to burn the disc. I highly reccomend this film, and the price for the second disc is well worth it for a movie this good.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: I was worried about this movie when I first heard of it, thinking that Spielberg and Cruise would ruin a perfectly good Phillip K. Dick sci-fi story. However, the movie turned out to be great. In the future, murders don't happen anymore because of 3 pre-cognitive people who see murders happen days or weeks in advance. A pre-crime department is born to apprehend murderers seen in the precog's visions before they get the chance to carry through their murders. Something has to go wrong, though, since it's a human system. Suddenly the chief of the pre-crime department is running for his life when the precogs dream of him murdering a stranger. Overall, a pretty good movie. Great action scenes, as well as some superb futuristic stuff (just look at the traffic scenes! Eek!).
Rating:
Summary: Will Blow You Away
Review: This movie will blow you away! It was such a visually entertaining film I would go so far as to say it has the best futuristic visuals I have seen in film. Equally important is how great the plot was. This is a very suspenseful film. It is longer than most films, but well worth the time invested into it's viewing. The film could have ended in two different spots int he plot and I would have been perfectly happy with it. Instead it continues to twist. I recommend this film to all who enjoy special effects and meandering scenarios.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies of the Year
Review: I can't believe some of the bad reviews for this film. Yes, just about any film that explores time, time travel, the future, etc. is going to have flaws in logic. It is impossible to travel through time, change the future, etc. If you think about it too much, you can always come up with a flaw. If the flaws require deep thought and don't just leap at you as obvious, I have no problem suspending my disbelief and going with where the storyteller wants to take me. Spielberg tells a great story here. I won't rehash the plot, but let's just say that not only is the story a zinger, but there are lots of great scenes. My favorite was the scene when Cruise is hiding out in a VERY sleazy apartment, waiting for his transplanted eyes to heal, and the cops release these electronic "spiders" that can get into just about any place and then they find people and scan their retinas. The sweeping camera work, as though the whole complex had been cut into a cross section, was absolutely terrific. In about two minutes, we get the entire social / political climate that now exists in this country at the time of the movie, at least for the poor. And it is suspenseful. The empaths are very creep creations, lying in their pool forever and ever. When Cruise awakens and steals one of them, the movie takes a very interesting turn, as we see the world through the eyes of this empath, Agatha, who has a hard time telling if what she is seeing is the present or the future. Samantha Morton plays her, and she DESERVES AN OSCAR NOMINATION, ASAP! She is reviting. Colin Farrell makes for a cool adversary for the hot-tempered Cruise. Max VonSydow is terrific as Cruise's mentor...he has such a great voice. And Cruise, who has never been one of my favorite actors, is very good in this...one of his best. He keeps himself from overacting in most scenes, and doesn't seem too self-conscious about looking good or charming. The whole vision of a not too distant future, coupled with some great scenes of suspense, good performances and even a tear-jerking moment or two make this one of the best movies of the year, and certainly the best sci-fi of the year. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Good SciFi film that falls short of greatness...
Review: This is a very entertaining DVD with lots of cool features to enjoy. Spielberg really is the grand master of film in the modern age. Unfortunately he is NOT philosophically consistent with the granduer he is able to present on the screen. This movie had the potential to deal with some fascinating topics relating to freewill vs. fate or destiny. It would have been bad enough if Spielberg had addressed the issue and come down on the wrong side of reality - but he doesn't even make a clear-cut stand with the plot resolution he gives. So at the end I was left feeling thrilled by the action and great special affects, but unaffected by the lack of real substance. It will be a great day for film history if Spielberg ever gets his philosophy in tune with his sense of life. Meanwhile, this is an enjoyable ride as long as you don't mind being left in the middle of nowhere at the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time and money
Review: Instead of waste my time and money I'd better watch once again "12 monkeys", "Bladerunner" or any other good old movie.
Personaly, I rate John Woo "Mission Impossible II" 100 times higher than this long-awaiting Spielberg & Cruise movie.
Trailer is a mix of some sci-fiction with silly moralizing, actors are misused absolutely, computer graphics tasteless... Do not recommend to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Classic film noir, set in a sci-fi universe.
Review: If I told you this was a story of an unjustly accused cop, on the run trying to clear himself and uncover a conspiracy, you'd roll your eyes and think, "Not again!" It's one of the oldest plots that exist.
Not that it can't be compelling, but you've "been there, done that."
This is that story, set in a world we haven't yet seen in film, a tweak on our current age filmed in a bleached out color combo.
This totally works. All cylinders firing like mad. Good performances, interesting plot, superb twists and slick but unobtrusive effects.
It may put off those who aren't "open" to sci-fi in general, but if that sounds like you, THIS should be one you should at least try out.
Go with it, and it'll take you to cool places.
Rating:
Summary: Was the Camera man's light meter broken?
Review: I really don't know what Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise thought they were doing in this movie. The lighting was too bright or overexposed. I suppose it was supposed to put me in mind of the future, but all it really did was annoy me. I had figured out who the bad guy was about 1 hour before the movie revealed it. And what about a little better attention to the details. How long did Cruise carry that pair of eyeballs with him and they hadn't deteriorated??? Now if he were such a big criminal, wouldn't they have shut down his access?????
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