Rating: 
Summary: Minority Report (2002)
Review: Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Cruise, Max Von Sydow, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton.
Running Time: 140 minutes.
Rated PG-13 for violence and some language.Steven Spielberg is perhaps the only director in the history of film who has the ability to extract almost every human emotion in all of his films, whether its true terror ("Jaws"), utter anguish and despair ("Schindler's List"), absolute awe ("Jurassic Park", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), pride ("Saving Private Ryan"), laughter ("Hook"), and love ("E.T."). "Minority Report" is a film that promotes suspicion, and more importantly, how greed can deteriorate the soul. In the year 2054, Tom Cruise stars as a prominent law enforcement agent who has the uncanny ability to envision murders and crimes before they are committed. Because of agents such as Cruise, the criminal justice system is impeccable and without failure, saving lives and putting those who endanger others into jail. With the tragic loss of his lover (Samantha Morton), John Anderton (Cruise) feels as though life can get no worse; until he becomes the subject of a pre-cognitive murder that he did not commit. With an FBI agent (Colin Farrell) only a step behind him, Anderton must come to realize why he has been framed, how he has become a suspect, and who the real killer is. Cruise is dynamite as the heroic officer of "PreCrime", jumping from flying, hovering aircrafts (yes, it is 2004 for crying out loud) and blending a poignant, confounded ingredient to his character that not many others would have pulled off. Spielberg delivers his most authoritative picture since "Saving Private Ryan", enchanting the audience using superb special effects and a cerebral screenplay based off Philip K. Dick's brilliant short story. The film can often be superiorly confusing for those who do not follow all of the technological jargon, which may throw many viewers off. With that shoved aside, this latest Spielberg effort has a little bit of everything. Not a classic, but not a small, futuristic, step from it.
Rating: 
Summary: The Worst
Review: There isn't a movie that is half as bad as this. Enough said.
Rating: 
Summary: A major movie!
Review: It seems that most people either really hated this movie or really loved it. There doesn't seem to be much "in between" where this movie is concerned. Personally, I loved it. For several years, the Washington, D.C. area has been murder-free thanks to three kids, called precogs, who can see the future. Technology allows the Precrime Unit, led by their chief Detective John Anderton (Tom Cruise), to harness these visions and apprehend would-be murderers before they commit the crime. All seems well with this system, until..... It seems that the Precrime unit is on the verge of going nationally, much to chagrin of the creator of the Precrime Unit, Director Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow). Fearing that he will lose control of the Precrime initiative, he hatches a complicated, but brilliant, plot to bring John down. After the precogs show a vision of John committing a premediated murder of someone he doesn't know, John must race against time, and against his own unit, to figure out who the person is he's suppose to kill and stop it. The special effects are nothing short of amazing in this movie (as would be expected). Unlike many other special effects laden movies, it is not the main reason to watch this movie. The story will grab your attention and hold on to it throughout the movie. The two-disc version of the DVD release comes with hours of extras, including how many of the stunts were performed, how the special effects were created, and a large archive of sets, costumes, props, and vehicles used in this movie.
Rating:
Summary: What a bad movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This is a terrible movie!!!!!. The plot was stupid, the acting was stupid, it was all stupid!
Rating:
Summary: Great movie, so-so DVD for a double set
Review: By now everyone knows the plot of "Minority Report" so I'd like to focus entirely on the contents of the double DVD set. The extra features DVD has a ton of background material. It's all well made and it all fits within the tone and texture of the movie. However, it's also repetitive and missing some things that could have made this a really great DVD. We're shown how a certain scene was filmed . . . and then, in another portion of the DVD, we're shown the same thing but from a slightly different perspective. OK, we get the idea. So many DVDs, when they actually do quality extra features, focus almost entirely on the production of the movie and ignore the background of the story. Was the movie based on a novel or short story? If so, how is it different? Where did the author get the story from? What inspired it? These are the kinds of things that elevate a DVD from VHS. They're what make a DVD worth owning in the first place. A good example of extra features done right was "The Count of Monte Cristo." We get information about the historical background and an interview with the screenwriter as to what he changed from the original text. "Minority Report" was based on a Philip K. Dick story, an unusual man who wrote many good books. Why is there so little here about him? At the very least, given that this is a double DVD, there should have been at least two entire extra features on him - one just about him (e.g. "The World of Philip K. Dick") and another about how the movie varied from his original text. "Minority Report" is a very good movie. Period. But the double DVD and its repetitive features leaves much to be desired.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece!
Review: At a time when movies think they have to choose between action and ideas, Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report" is a triumph--a film that works on our minds and our emotions. It is a thriller and a human story, a movie of ideas that's also a whodunit. Here is a master filmmaker at the top of his form, working with a star, Tom Cruise, who generates complex human feelings even while playing an action hero. I complained earlier this summer of awkward joins between live action and CGI; I felt the action sequences in "Spider-Man" looked too cartoonish, and that "Star Wars Episode II," by using computer effects to separate the human actors from the sets and CGI characters, felt disconnected and sterile. Now here is Spielberg using every trick in the book and matching them without seams, so that no matter how he's achieving his effects, the focus is always on the story and the characters. The movie turns out to be eerily prescient, using the term "pre-crime" to describe stopping crimes before they happen; how could Spielberg have known the government would be using the same term this summer? In his film, inspired by but much expanded from a short story by Philip K. Dick, Tom Cruise is John Anderton, chief of the Department of Pre-Crime in the District of Columbia, where there has not been a murder in six years. Soon, it appears, there will be a murder--committed by Anderton himself. The year is 2054. Futuristic skyscrapers coexist with the famous Washington monuments and houses from the 19th century. Anderton presides over an operation controlling three "Pre-Cogs," precognitive humans who drift in a flotation tank, their brain waves tapped by computers. They're able to pick up thoughts of premeditated murders and warn the cops, who swoop down and arrest the would-be perpetrators before the killings can take place. Because this is Washington, any government operation that is high-profile and successful inspires jealousy. Anderton's superior, bureau director Burgess (Max von Sydow) takes pride in him, and shields him from bureaucrats like Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell), from the Justice Department. As the pre-crime strategy prepares to go national, Witwer seems to have doubts about its wisdom--or he is only jealous of its success? Spielberg establishes these characters in a dazzling future world, created by art director Alex McDowell, that is so filled with details large and small that we stop trying to figure out everything and surrender with a sigh. Some of the details: a computer interface that floats in mid-air, manipulated by Cruise with the gestures of a symphony conductor; advertisements that crawl up the sides of walls and address you personally; cars that whisk around town on magnetic cushions; robotic "spiders" that can search a building in minutes by performing a retinal scan on everyone in it. "Blade Runner," also inspired by a Dick story, shows a future world in decay; "Minority Report" offers a more optimistic preview. The plot centers on a rare glitch in the visions of the Pre-Cogs. Although "the Pre-Cogs are never wrong," we're told, "sometimes ... they disagree." The dissenting Pre-Cog is said to have filed a minority report, and in the case of Anderton the report is crucial, because otherwise he seems a certain candidate for arrest as a pre-criminal. Of course, if you could outsmart the Pre-Cog system, you would have committed the perfect crime ... Finding himself the hunted instead of the hunter, Anderton teams up with Agatha (Samantha Morton), one of the Pre-Cogs, who seemed to be trying to warn him of his danger. Because she floats in a fluid tank, Agatha's muscles are weakened (have Pre-Cogs any rights of their own?) and Anderton has to half-drag her as they flee from the pre-crime police. One virtuoso sequence shows her foreseeing the immediate future and advising Anderton about what to do to elude what the cops are going to do next. The choreography, timing and wit of this sequence make it, all by itself, worth the price of admission. But there are other stunning sequences. Consider a scene where the "spiders" search a rooming house, and Anderton tries to elude capture by immersing himself in a tub of ice water. This sequence begins with an overhead cross-section of the apartment building and several of its inhabitants, and you would swear it has to be done with a computer, but no: This is an actual physical set, and the elegant camera moves were elaborately choreographed. It's typical of Spielberg that, having devised this astonishing sequence, he propels it for dramatic purposes and doesn't simply exploit it to show off his cleverness. And watch the exquisite timing as one of the spiders, on its way out, senses something and pauses in mid-step. Tom Cruise's Anderton is an example of how a star's power can be used to add more dimension to a character than the screenplay might supply. He compels us to worry about him, and even in implausible action sequences (like falls from dizzying heights) he distracts us by making us care about the logic of the chase, not the possibility of the stunt. Samantha Morton's character (is "Agatha" a nod to Miss Christie?) has few words and seems exhausted and frightened most of the time, providing an eerie counterpoint for Anderton's man of action. There is poignancy in her helplessness, and Spielberg shows it in a virtuoso two-shot, as she hangs over Anderton's shoulder while their eyes search desperately in opposite directions. This shot has genuine mystery. It has to do with the composition and lighting and timing and breathing, and like the entire movie it furthers the cold, frightening hostility of the world Anderton finds himself in. The cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, who has worked with Spielberg before (not least on "Schindler's List"), is able to get an effect that's powerful and yet bafflingly simple. The plot I will avoid discussing in detail. It is as ingenious as any film noir screenplay, and plays fair better than some. It's told with such clarity that we're always sure what Spielberg wants us to think, suspect and know. And although there is a surprise at the end, there is no cheating: The crime story holds water. American movies are in the midst of a transition period. Some directors place their trust in technology. Spielberg, who is a master of technology, trusts only story and character, and then uses everything else as a workman uses his tools. He makes "Minority Report" with the new technology; other directors seem to be trying to make their movies from it. This film is such a virtuoso high-wire act, daring so much, achieving it with such grace and skill. A masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: The perfect complement to A.I.
Review: I choose to view both of these films as related pairs. Indeed from a pure cinematic viewpoint they have a lot in common - the subtle lighting, the differing viewpoints, the pace of the story and a logical, satisfying conclusion. The future has never been portrayed more terrifyingly or more acutely. It is a world of instant analyis, lack of privacy and "buy me now" commerce. But it is also a lot like ours - people's homes are still their retreat, parents still love children and in our desperate times we turn not to objects but to people, to relationships. Tom Cruise gives one of his best performances as the distraught father who gains a glimmer of hope that his stolen son is alive. The mutant children are absolutely remarkable in their actions. Colin Farrel's everyday cop does the job but who can forget Max Von Sydow's stately, arrogant performance as the evil genius who almost pulled it off? This one deserves top honors.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect complement to A.I.
Review: I choose to view both of these films as related pairs. Indeed form a pure cinematic viewpoint they have a lot in common - the subtle lighting, the differing viewpoints, the pace of the story and a logical, satisfying conclusion. The future has never been portrayed more terrifyingly or more acutely. It is a world of instant analyis, lack of privacy and "buy me now" commerce. But it is also a lot like ours - people's homes are still their retreat, parents still love children and in our desperate times we turn not to objects but to people, to relationships. Tom Cruise gives one of his best performances as the distraught father who gains a glimmer of hope that his stolen son is alive. The mutant children are absolutely remarkable in their actions. Colin Farrel's everyday cop does the job but who can forget Max Von Sydow's stately, arrogant performance as the evil genius who almost pulled it off? This one deserves top honors.
Rating:
Summary: classic
Review: This movie succeeded everywhere that Spielburg's AI did not, and really got me excited about sci-fi again. I actually would not have rated Minority Report as highly the first time I saw it, but it only improved in subsequent viewings. This is really everything a movie should be. The story flows perfectly, Cruise fits the role, the action is ingenious, and the ideas presented activate the imagination rather than dulling it, like so many movies. 8/10
Rating:
Summary: Not Much Substance. T.C.Great Actor but Movies Stink!
Review: Till this day I cannot believe why people like his films.
I say this because his works simply just stink; even though,
frankly he is a great actor. This story is just lame; "Minority Report" is no good at all. I thought
the plot would have more bad guys, but to find out that the whole
ring leader to Minority Report was an Old Man is truly a let
down. I thought it would be a band of young guys-intellectuals
who really had a different vision of the world-Earth whom would
put in a New Order to things. Steven Spielberg directed this
garbage and who ever wrote the story really lacks content in his or her story writing. I am not being negative, but as a fan one actually expects great films with great messages in the end. This being a Sci-Fi picture
really failed in My Beautiful Imagination.
I wish Minority Report was like in a way like John Carpenters Ghosts of Mars. What this movie needed was the following: 1. Great love scenes with his female co-star: had none. 2. Better plot: Had none. 3. Who was really the bad guy in this movie: An old man, just one old man: disgusting. That old man was in RoboCop, some old movie from the 20th Century with Peter Weller. T.C.(Tom Cruise) needs to really focus on his choosing of better stories that have violence, and detail to the problem and how the character solves the problem in the end and defeats the bad guys. Tom Cruise doing an "In Hell" like Van Damme would be great. Tom Cruise doing and being in a horror film picture would to
be great. To bad Tom Cruise was not in Traffic with Erika Christensen, it would have been nice. Whoever chooses his stories really is doing a bad job. I also never liked Top Gun, that was just no good. I've have seen him in talk shows and on the Jay Leno show and the guy is so friendly, and i admit he can act, but the stories he is doing simply are just washed up. T.C. is simply Stanley Cup material, but the cup is not yet in his grasp(motion picture wise nor Academy Award wise). Final note: Minority Report may have a cool movie poster, but movie simply is a total let down. I do not recommend Minority Report:"BLAND." My whole vision of minority report was the issue of tom cruise battaling future ku klux klan phd guys who were into cloning and whom wanted a new world and whom wanted to get rid of minorities-that was my true vision of minority report.
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