movie review: Minority Report (2002)
Minority Report
Starring: Tom Cruise (Anderton), Max von Sydow (Burgess), Kathryn Morris (Lara), Samantha Morton (Agatha), and a billion no-names
based on a short story by phillip k. dick, who also wrote the short stories that inspired the movies blade runner, total recall, and paycheck, minority report offered summer viewers in its 2002 release a much-needed summer action/suspense flick with hot-bod tom cruise as the sympathetic main character (this was before he displayed his craziness on tv shows like the today show and the oprah winfrey show in 2005). as in his other short stories, dick creates a complex chain of events that attempts to answer the basic question of whether people can be indicted for crimes they haven't yet committed.
i watched this movie last night for the second time; the first time was soon after its release to video. i wasn't entirely very enthused about watching it this second time because i thought i remembered everything that happened, and would therefore be bored to sleep by the combination of a mike's in my hand and a movie i already know inside and out on the tv. this was not the case however, because as i got through the movie, i found myself in as much suspense regarding who did what and why as i was the first time. it's possible that i was in more suspense because i thought i knew the answers but found i was wrong nearly every time i came to a conclusion. in this, minority report was great--especially the second time around.
cruise plays chief anderton, head of the precrime department in washington, d.c., quite well: he does his day job of sorting through the precognitives' images of future murders, if somewhat extravagantly, as is cruise's baseline of acting, then goes home to an empty house to watch home movies of his old life, before his son died and his wife left him. his character is deep, but not so deep as to take away from the action and suspense of the plot unfolding around him. before long, anderton sees the precogs' image of his own future as a murderer, and he runs (because "everybody runs") as he tries to figure out why he is seen murdering a man he has never met. this character seems to be right up cruise's alley--he seemed to overplay his character in war of the worlds (2005), and that severely took away from the possible charm of that movie and that character.
to be honest, i can't think of a poor actor in the entirety of this movie. kathryn morris as anderton's ex-wife (or maybe just estranged, it's hard to say) plays an intriguing amount of depth into her character as well without taking away from the plot of the story. now i know why i recognize her: she's on tv's cold case as lilly rush. i'm glad to see she's been able to find more work, because i think she did a fine job in minority report. von sydow plays the kindly-old-man-turned-criminal part without a hitch, and samantha morton limps around and screams convincingly as the strongest of the precogs.
the movie was a little over two hours long--that's one fault i can find with it. however, i think length works in the movie's favor: you look at the clock and think, it has to be over soon, so this guy did it and this is what happened. wait, what? it's still going on? the length gives the movie a chance to spindle through the possibilities and come down to the bare bones of the only reality of what happened. (i'm trying not to give spoilers, so apologies for the vagueness--i think it's good enough to recommend people's watching it a second or third time.)
in all, i give minority report an A-. it could be trimmed a tad for time, and they could have found anderton's son, but it's really worth a watch overall.
Starring: Tom Cruise (Anderton), Max von Sydow (Burgess), Kathryn Morris (Lara), Samantha Morton (Agatha), and a billion no-names
based on a short story by phillip k. dick, who also wrote the short stories that inspired the movies blade runner, total recall, and paycheck, minority report offered summer viewers in its 2002 release a much-needed summer action/suspense flick with hot-bod tom cruise as the sympathetic main character (this was before he displayed his craziness on tv shows like the today show and the oprah winfrey show in 2005). as in his other short stories, dick creates a complex chain of events that attempts to answer the basic question of whether people can be indicted for crimes they haven't yet committed.
i watched this movie last night for the second time; the first time was soon after its release to video. i wasn't entirely very enthused about watching it this second time because i thought i remembered everything that happened, and would therefore be bored to sleep by the combination of a mike's in my hand and a movie i already know inside and out on the tv. this was not the case however, because as i got through the movie, i found myself in as much suspense regarding who did what and why as i was the first time. it's possible that i was in more suspense because i thought i knew the answers but found i was wrong nearly every time i came to a conclusion. in this, minority report was great--especially the second time around.
cruise plays chief anderton, head of the precrime department in washington, d.c., quite well: he does his day job of sorting through the precognitives' images of future murders, if somewhat extravagantly, as is cruise's baseline of acting, then goes home to an empty house to watch home movies of his old life, before his son died and his wife left him. his character is deep, but not so deep as to take away from the action and suspense of the plot unfolding around him. before long, anderton sees the precogs' image of his own future as a murderer, and he runs (because "everybody runs") as he tries to figure out why he is seen murdering a man he has never met. this character seems to be right up cruise's alley--he seemed to overplay his character in war of the worlds (2005), and that severely took away from the possible charm of that movie and that character.
to be honest, i can't think of a poor actor in the entirety of this movie. kathryn morris as anderton's ex-wife (or maybe just estranged, it's hard to say) plays an intriguing amount of depth into her character as well without taking away from the plot of the story. now i know why i recognize her: she's on tv's cold case as lilly rush. i'm glad to see she's been able to find more work, because i think she did a fine job in minority report. von sydow plays the kindly-old-man-turned-criminal part without a hitch, and samantha morton limps around and screams convincingly as the strongest of the precogs.
the movie was a little over two hours long--that's one fault i can find with it. however, i think length works in the movie's favor: you look at the clock and think, it has to be over soon, so this guy did it and this is what happened. wait, what? it's still going on? the length gives the movie a chance to spindle through the possibilities and come down to the bare bones of the only reality of what happened. (i'm trying not to give spoilers, so apologies for the vagueness--i think it's good enough to recommend people's watching it a second or third time.)
in all, i give minority report an A-. it could be trimmed a tad for time, and they could have found anderton's son, but it's really worth a watch overall.