Minority Report

Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, & Samantha Morton

Rating: 4 out of 5

Most people don't recognize the name Phillip K. Dick and when you read his name, you probably just snickered. He might not have had an easy childhood with a name like that and you may not recognize his name, but he is to Science Fiction what Stephen King is to Horror. The films Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly, Next, & The Adjustment Bureau were all based on stories or books that he wrote. Minority Report is yet another of his stories developed for the big screen and one of the most popular. This ingenious film was Directed by Stephen Spielberg and starred Tom Cruise. I am by no means a fan of Tom Cruise, in fact, I've made it a point over the last few years to avoid seeing anything he is in, but this was one film I couldn't miss. To his credit Cruise was very good and exciting throughout, showing a lot of charisma, it was unexpected, but a welcome change from what we normally see from him. This terrific futuristic tale tells the story of pre-crime, a system in which high functioning autistics can predict murders with a very narrow margin of error. John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is the lead investigator, whose job it is to stop these crimes before they happen. Things are going well for him, that is until his name comes out of the machine and he becomes a target of his own men. The story was deep, yet somewhat complicated, as I was confused at several points in the movie, but that's how you know it's good Science Fiction. The action and chase sequences were fantastic, as was the direction and special effects. The story does however leave some lose ends and I found the precogs to be more than somewhat creepy. It almost seemed like these disabled people were being abused for their unique abilities and not a single character in the film had any issues with that. Minority Report is a long, complex story, but it's fast paced, visually impactful, and will make you think. It only took thirty years, but you can finally add a Tom Cruise film to the list of movies I enjoyed.