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By
STEVEN D. SEGAL
In the year 2054, murder is a thing of the past. The cops of the Washington, DC Pre-Crime Unit
rely on the psychic visions of a trio of freaky "pre-cognitives" to stop killers before they strike. Tom Cruise stars as
John Anderton, a decorated Pre-Crime workhorse who's spent the past six years mourning the disappearance of his only son
while diligently foiling would-be murderers. The system appears to be perfect... that is, until Anderton pops up in a
pre-cog's dream holding a smoking gun in his hand. Suddenly, the hunter becomes the hunted as Anderton's own team of
high-tech commandos comes chasing after HIM. Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, whose works have previously been
adapted into the sci-fi classic "Blade Runner" and the Paul Verhoeven/Arnold Schwarzenegger flick "Total Recall".
Rebounding from the decidedly chilly reception given to "Artificial Intelligence", Steven Spielberg puts the pedal to
the metal and keeps the action and tension cruising along. The look of the film -- with its grainy, bleached-out, steely
blue palette and an abundance of sly visual effects -- is delectable candy for the eyes and is preserved in its wide
theatrical aspect ratio (a full-screen crop-and-chop version is also available). No doubt some ill-informed home video
geeks might cry foul over the excessively grainy DVD image; not only is this jagged visual aesthetic intentional, it's a
minor miracle of DVD authoring that the coarse grain is so well preserved, and without noticeable compression artifacts.
This is a stunning transfer. Alas, this slightly overlong thrill ride begins to sputter in its third act, when the plot
downshifts into a familiar "Murder She Wrote" groove, but for well over 90 minutes before this point, "Minority Report"
is the most breathless entertainment Spielberg's orchestrated in years.
Spielberg consistently refuses to record audio commentaries for any of his films, so it's no surprise he hasn't provided
one here. What *IS* surprising is that nobody else on the project was asked to contribute to an audio essay. Who's to
dictate that ONLY Spielberg is qualified to discuss his films? What about the screenwriters discussing the art of
adaptation? Or maestro John Williams dissecting his [isolated] score? Or Mister Cruise himself jabbering on about any
and everything? Anyway, the supplements consist of the usual array of trailers and how'd-they-do-it? mini-documentaries,
all of which are informative and remarkably free of the self-aggrandizing hokum that typically passes for bonus
making-of material. |
