minority report: my 2-cents

[mr. henry]

a little long...average ending wrap-up...plenty of borrowed stuff from blade runner, clockwork orange, and the matrix...still, I feel it's maybe the best sci-fi wide-release since Gattica or Matrix.

at least spielberg is making fantasy again instead of high-profile downers.

this also is the hardest edge fantasy from spielberg i can remember...bloody gunshot killings, murder with scissors, drownings, bags of eyeballs...

overall, good harder-edged sci-fi than the overhyped Armageddon or Independence Day-style crapola of previous summers.

mr henry

[Mofo Rising]

Yeah, I thought it was pretty good.  Of course, being a huge Philip K. Dick fan, it wasn't near as good as I let myself hope it would be.

Visually, the movie was stunning.  Of course, it's Spielberg, one of the masters of on-screen spectacle.  Oddly, this movie doesn't seem much like his other work.

Also, I was pleased that I was able to fairly ignore Tom Cruise.  Other then a few scenes where he is required to emote, his performance is just fine.  It's not that he's a bad actor, insomuch as he's a non-actor.

I liked the bizarre, incongruous humor the movie had.

On a small note, I did have to despair at the computer processing in the movie.  It's so slow!  The opening scene with Cruise manning the computer screen is quite dramatically paced, but I'd hoped that things in the future would be moving much quicker than that!

[yaddo42]

I've been hearing good things about this one, so I'll probably have to break down and go see it. I'm glad PKD's works are getting adapted again, he created such rich paranoid visions and mind trips of literature that his stuff deserves the wider audience that film adaptions can bring.

BTW, mr. henry, is your name significant of anything? I'm asking because there's a band I like by that name and I was curious.

[jmc]

Sounds like a real science fiction movie, which is a good thing.  If it's even half as good as GATTACA it'll be worth seeing.

[sm]

I thought this is one of spielbergs better efforts at sc-fi anyhow. "AI" was just too...all over the map. I just wish he had that same flare like in his early career about choosing really good actors that aren't "box office draw" that really make the story solid. Cruise was just the easy way to cruise into the profit zone.

I thought the movie was pretty good, one that with another viewing or two might be more enjoyable (not as watchable as "the matrix" in that i've seen that nearly 4 dozen times). Yeah he does have more gore..scissors, eyeballs - he's not new to gore but in fantasy he always seems to throw in that "indiana jones" humor (like with eyes rolling).  

Vote in the Minority Report poll at my site: http://www.geocities.com/smvgrey

:-)

[mr. henry]

i grabbed the "mr. henry" handle from james caan's role in "bottle rocket." caan runs a lawn care service as a front for a suburban crime ring. i think owen wilson is hilarious, always refering to mr. henry and his "gang."  maybe that's where the band got it from as well. the movie is pretty popular these days. (rightfully so).

-mr. henry

[J.R.]

One of the best "real" sci-fi films that's been released by a major studio. I thought the ending was a bit too happy though. If you're going to make a dark PKD story, keep it that way to the end.