The Great Movie Review: Minority Report

I'll be honest, Tom Cruise is not one of my favorite actors. But as of late he's been gaining points, however slow. I enjoyed The Last Samurai, and Rain Man was excellent, but somewhere in between I forgot about Minority Report. It's helpful that Spielberg directed, but for the life of me I don't know how I could see this movie, think to myself, that was pretty good and then forget about it until about three days ago.

We start in a utopian future, localized around DC. We get introduced to the experimental Pre-Crime Unit, who arrest people for murders they commit in the future. Cruise plays the main character, John Anderton, who is "framed" for a murder he will commit in the future. Just watch it, it'll all make sense. Maybe. If your lucky and you pay attention.

I don't think i could handle living in DC with this going on. Sure murder is nonexistent, but in the back of my mind i would be paranoid the entire time that i will be arrested at any moment. It'd be terrible. Don't talk to anyone, don't interact, don't even look at people! Just yell you're sorry and that no one is going to get hurt! Or is that the opposite of what you should do?

Anyhow, the acting is solid. Cruise and Colin Farrell (hereafter referred to as Bullseye) both give very good performances. I also enjoyed the performance by Peter Stormare as the eye doctor. Your not sure if he's good or bad. And Lois Smith was great as the creepy plant lady.

The special effects haven't aged too badly. The jet packs needed work from the start though. They achieved flight through the magic of the camera. Which means it wobbled around they yanked people around on wires. Bleech.

Story telling. This was the best part of the film. The movie itself was based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. From the intro of the pre-crime unit, the explanation of the tech, to the unveiling of the murder that Anderson is being framed for, the chase and through the solving of the mystery, it grips you and moves you forward.

In the movie they discuss the ethics of arresting people for future crimes they have yet to commit. Obviously there is a great big Jabba the Hut sized problem with that. They haven't actually killed anyone. The justification is that even though it happens in the future, and they haven't done it, it would happen anyways. But by them stopping that chain of events that time line no longer exists. Meaning that the future crime they are supposed to commit no longer even happens. It's like getting arrested for nothing. But on the other hand, were they allowed to continue they would in fact murder said person. But they didn't, soooooo ... yeah the movie didn't do a good job defending this point of view either.

There's not a ton of funny in this movie. It's definitely a mystery/thriller. Even if you aren't into Sci-Fi, you should see this movie.

This movie is a Watch. Watch is good.

Spoiler alert!




Bullseye dies! How did i forget that!