Ray Pride

Think of a world where crimes could be stopped before they're committed: there's homeland security for you. In Steven Spielberg's second dystopian science-fiction tale in a row, Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, head of the D.C. "Department of Pre-Crime," which has prevented homicides for six years through the exploitation of the "Pre-Cogs," a mysterious trio of seers that can predict the future; or at least one dark part of it. Samantha Morton plays the most gifted, and she remains one of the great actors of her generation. The greatest strength of "Minority Report" is that it elaborates Philip K. Dick's seething paranoia with science fiction's genre conventions, in order to reflect disturbing social themes that are relevant today--privacy, the effects of drug abuse on successive generations, the adult nightmares of the abused, and a misguided belief that law enforcement, led by flawed humans, can do no wrong. Spielberg's made a dark but brisk Hitchcock-style wrong-man murder mystery from the ground up, rather than indulging in mere pastiche. As a director and studio mogul, he was a latecomer to the DVD medium, waiting until enough households had the players to make it worth his economic while. (Witness the "Back to the Future" trilogy, only just in stores this past month.) Spielberg's well-known enthusiasm comes through in interview supplements to "Minority Report," although he's not yet a believer in the director's commentary. The DreamWorks double-disk set preserves the movie in its 146-minute glory, leading to still more of the conversations I've been overhearing for months, with every shmuck with an iBook is raring to end the film when Spielberg deviates from Dick's chilly ending for a more optimistic, Spielbergian one. The film's technical and design elements are deconstructed at mind-numbing duration. Movie, please...

"Minority Report" is out now on DreamWorks Home Entertainment.

(2003-01-02)

Also by Ray Pride

Tip of the Week
Naughty and overheated, the restoration of Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1946 "Quai des Orfévres" is a sweet marvel.
(2002-12-26)

Fun and gangs
Two Leos this Christmas: One's bad, one's having the time of his life.
(2002-12-26)

Bringing out the dead
Martin Scorsese and innumerable conspirators have struggled for almost three decades to produce "Gangs of New York," and yet it is a terrible movie.
(2002-12-18)

The Six Days of Christmas
What's the smart moviegoer--or the smart filmmaker--to do? Wait for Christmas, it seems, when Hollywood's finally unembarrassed about actually having people with taste in its midst.
(2002-12-18)

Tip of the Week
(2002-12-12)

The J-Lo Show
(2002-12-12)

Tip of the Week
(2002-12-04)

DVD Tip of the Week
(2002-12-04)

Time regained
(2002-12-04)

My Big Fat Night
(2002-12-04)

Turn into the slide
(2002-11-26)

Perfectly mediocre
(2002-11-20)

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