DVD : Minority Report (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- Speilberg's greatest ever - a masterpiece.
This film is simply Speilberg's finest hour. He will never top this, and yes I know I'm talking about the man who directed Jaws, ET, Close Encounters, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List etc. This film has everything - breathtaking and groundbreaking special effects, a fabulous cast with superb performances (Cruise's finest since 'Born on the 4th of July' which was a tour de force) and an intricate byzantine plot that keeps you guessing until the very end. And I defy anyone to understand the incredibly complex and fast moving story the first time. But that's perfect as everytime I viewed it, it was as visually thrilling and exciting as the first time. An absolute classic, thoroughly compelling, gripping, engaging and stunning from start to finish.

Rating:

- Tricky, complex, complicated future
The human race has always been obsessed by the future, which is probably one distinctive trait that makes it human and takes it out of animality. Humanity has to plan its future in order to survive, hence it has to predict its future needs. But humanity remains an animal race in many ways, including of course its survival instinct. So crime is part of the picture, what we call crime in our human ethics. But this is nothing but the individual survival instinct that goes against the collective survival instinct. Then the collectivity, human society decides to consider the individual survival instinct as being a crime and as deserving punishment. It is, and has been, tempting to predict what and which indidviduals will become cirminals in order to prevent that crime. It was for instance suggested under President Nixon to preventively take away into reform schools all the kids, aged six or seven, that had the « typical criminal » psychology before they realized their destiny which was considered as unescapable and necessarily criminal. This approach was essentially behavioral. Then another appeared, essentially genetic this time and some still believe that the DNA of any individual contains its destiny that is absolutely unescapable. So let us put away those who have the « crime » genes. Steven Spielberg deals with this dilemma but based this time on a modern embodiment of the seers of old. Three people have been transformed by some genetic manipulation into seers of the future and their predictions are considered as absolutely infallible since they always seem to agree. Then the criminals are arrested before they commit their crime and put away. The effect is the disappearance of crime from Washington D.C. in just a few years. But Steven Spielberg goes further and demonstrates that there are several flaws in this theory. First the three seers don't always agree and there might be a minority report from one of them that is over-ruled by the two others and not communicated to the precrime police. Then this precrime police is a private enterprise and it was necessary to prove its efficiency to get the business. Little by little it appears that the founder of this technology manipulated it in order to prove his theory by arresting someone who was supposed to kill a woman just before he did. That one was paid by the inventor who then afterward committed himself the very crime exactly the way it was supposed to happen which enabled this second crime to be understood by technicians as a simple echo of the first one that was prevented and to be disregarded. The death of the woman only became a missing person. That is the flaw of the film : why didn't anyone investigate this « disappearance » ? But then he also had to trick his own associate, the main detective of this precrime police. He does that by getting the latter's son killed in such a way that the crime will remain unsolved. But this enables the boss to nourish in his aassociate a desire to know who killed his son. This associate's coming around to that knowledge will make him become a criminal and thus he will be neutralized and put away but after the crime is committed for reasons that are not clear. But a few facts were brought together and sorted out by this cop's wife and then she manages to get her husband free, which sounds quite iffy, and this triggers a full process of truth discovery and public broadcasting. The end is yours to discover. But this approach, with marvellous special effects and beautiful action, seems to overkill the point it wants to make : The future is unescapable and predictable, and yet the future can be tampered with and manipulated. The first principle is excessive and even wrong. The second is probably true. But both together are just absurd because contradictory. The point is then disproved by this very contradiction. But it is a great film nevertheless that reveals this question of the future and its possible prediction is essential to man and humanity.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

Rating:

- "Precrime"
Minority Report brings to the screen a fascinating view of the future where law enforcement is in the hands of Precrime and arrests are made based on visions provided by three genetically tampered humans who can see into the future. When the pride of the Force, Chief John Anderton, is accused of a crime he will commit, he takes a path, which leads him to discover things that will shake the very foundations of society...
Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell and the rest of the cast carry out their performances very well.
The setting, the plot, the dialogues, the music, the action sequences, and the special effects are all wonderful!
Minority Report will surely provide for an evening's entertainment, as it is one of those films that gets you and keeps you thinking long after it's over!

Rating:

- A SCIENCE-FICTION MASTERPIECE!
The year 2054 seems like a safe year. With the special unit known as Pre-crime preventing future murders from occuring, everybody should be happy. But this is not just about murderers; it is about a government system that is error prone. This short story "The Minority Report," by Philip K. Dick goes deeper into the problem with a system that locks up future murderer's before they commit the crime. What if the system is flawed? Hence, "The Minority Report."

Moreover, what if the system can be manipulated? Is this possible? (Tom Cruise) heads the special crime unit known as Pre-crime. His job is to find and arrest people whose intent is to kill. But what if there are flaws in the system? Enter (Colin Farrell) who has been sent by the Justice Department to investigate Pre-crime, and find out if indeed any flaws do exist in this new crime fighting system. The Pre-cogs, which are three humans inside of a self-contained tank have visions that can fortell when a crime is about to occur. They also have secondary visions: a sort of echo of the crime that would have occurred, had Pre-crime not interfered. And this is where the problem lies: the echoes can be real, and Pre-crime may see this as just another echo.

When (Tom Cruise) finds himself as a future murderer, he tries to find out how and why he would commit the crime. This is an intelligent film. (Max von Sydow) is in charge of Pre-crime, and it was he who began the system and knows of this "Minority Report." He also knows that the system can be manipulated: He himself has done so. Therefore, you have a very, very good film about people who are incarcerated for crimes that they may not have ever committed. Maybe in their anger they wanted someone dead, however, since the crime was never committed, how do we know? The people and politicians like pre-crime, afterall, the crime rate has plummetted to practically nil. As Tom Cruise sets out to prove that errors in the system can and do occur, he is pursued by Colin Farrell [who gives an outstanding acting performance]. This film is highly recommended.

Rating:

- "Can You See?" ~ Choice In An Otherwise Predictable Future
'Minority Report' is a fascinating excursion into the future, 2054 to be exact, where pre-cognitiion is used to read the minds of the public at large and prevent the crime of murder before it occurs. Interesting concept don't you think, incarcerating someone for a crime before it's committed. However what looks at first like a error proof system, a flaw seems to appear when police officer John Anderton (Tom Cruise), chief of the the pre-crime division appears as the murder suspect in one of the pre-cogs visions of the future.

Be prepared for an entertaining adventure that boasts not only wonderful special effects, but a lot to think about as well.

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