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UPDATED!! Nordling Gets His Rave On!! Massawyrm, Too!! Last Batch Of MINORITY REPORT Reviews!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Nordling’s what we call “family” around here. He’s an old-school TalkBacker/BNAT veteran/all-around cool guy, and he’s also one of the purest Steven Spielberg fans I know. E.T. has a special, poignant significance in Nordling’s life, and listening to him talk about The Beard, his love is obvious. When he told me he was going to see MINORITY REPORT early, I told him how much I wanted to hear his take on it. So... here we go...
Nordling here.
Everyone who knows me understands what an unabashed worshipper of Steven Spielberg I am. Before I die, there are only three people I want to meet – George Lucas, Stephen King, and the man affectionately referred to as “the Beard.” It was Spielberg that introduced me to the power of film, in 1975, with JAWS. That is still what I consider to be a perfect film. And Spielberg’s made a few perfect films. The man is incredibly gifted.
I’m going to surprise some people here and say that Spielberg hasn’t made a worthwhile film since 1993. Until now.
Shock! Dismay! But it’s true. Now, I like a lot of the films he’s made since SCHINDLER’S LIST, his last, great film. A.I. is a wonderful film but its flaws put it nowhere near the Beard’s best. AMISTAD is too preachy. LOST WORLD, the less said the better. And SAVING PRIVATE RYAN has terrifically great sequences, especially the first half-hour and the last 45 minutes. But as a whole film, it’s too typical of many World War II films. I like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. But it’s not on my list as his best work. I have my personal favorites that don’t rank on many critic lists (I still think EMPIRE OF THE SUN is an amazing achievement).
What are his best? Easy. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. JAWS. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (my personal favorite). CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. SCHINDLER’S LIST. Any director would be envious to have one of these films on his resume.
When Moriarty told me he had read the script to MINORITY REPORT and declared it tremendously good, I paid attention. We are both longtime Beard fans, and we got into very lengthy discussions of A.I. I thought it was good, with some flaws, but he strongly disliked it. It was still better than most of the movies last summer, and personally, I’d rather see an interesting failure than some of the so-called “successes” of summer 2001. But Moriarty felt strongly about MINORITY REPORT. And Scott Frank…to those not in the know about screenwriters, he’s one of the good ones. He’s written OUT OF SIGHT, GET SHORTY, and MALICE, among others. I’m especially a fan of his OUT OF SIGHT script, which pops in all the right places, and has one of my favorite exchanges of dialogue ever (“He don’t have to die, Foley, he could fall on a shiv…or my dick…” “I’ll pay it, no problem.”). So I was excited now, although it’s generally not difficult to get me buzzing about a Spielberg film.
MINORITY REPORT is easily one of Steven Spielberg’s best films. He directs here with an ease not seen since the early 80s, confident not only in the story, but how to tell it. It may be his best science fiction work yet, and yes, I’m including E.T. and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS.
STOP READING NOW FOR FEAR OF SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
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This is not a Spielberg that we have ever seen before. This is dark, gritty stuff. There aren’t many Spielberg films where characters chase their own eyeballs down a hallway, or have a main character be drug-addicted and still be the hero. And the film opens with a scene of darkness straight from David Fincher.
In the future, in Washington D.C., a test program called Precrime is nearing completion. A nationwide vote is under way to bring this “experiment” to the rest of the country. Due to Precrime, there has not been a murder in D.C. in six years. John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is the head of the law enforcement division of Precrime, founded by Director Burgess (Max Von Sydow). Precrime involves three Pre-Cognitives, who can see murders before they occur. Pre-meditated murders can be seen 2 or 3 days in advance, while crimes of passion take less time to stop, there being no conscious thought of murder. These Pre-Cogs are held in a pool where the various officers of Precrime analyze their visions. The Pre-Cogs can see only murders.
John Anderton is a tortured man. Six years before, his son went missing at a public pool, and his marriage disintegrated as a result. The abduction took place before Precrime came into being, so John has no idea if his son is dead or alive.A haunted man, without any closure, he takes drugs to escape from the pain, and puts all his work into Precrime, to stop these crimes from happening again.
Because of the upcoming vote, Detective Ed Witwer (Colin Farrell), with authority given to him by the Justice Department, investigates Precrime for flaws. When he and John enter the chamber where the Pre-Cogs are held, one of the PreCogs, Agatha (Samantha Morton) shows a vision of a woman named Anne Lively murdered by drowning. After John begins to investigate, another vision comes from the Pre-Cogs – a vision of John Anderton murdering a man named Crow. Now on the run, Anderton tries to find out what has happened to his life, and he is in search of the secret of the Pre-Cog named Agatha.
This script is ACES. One of the best science fiction screenplays to come down the pike in many years. It’s possible it’s so successful because it’s not exactly a sci-fi film as it is a noir/mystery. As Anderton delves further into the mystery, we see that this is a world in atrophy. Ads aggressively market themselves to the individual. Invasion of privacy is as routine as taking out the trash. And yet not once does this world feel false – it’s intensely lived in. Jawdropping visions of traffic in future D.C., of retina spiders that identify solely by eye scan, of backstreet doctors who would soon cut your eyes out for a fee as look at you. It is a dark world, where lives are saved, but the lives aren’t amounting to much.
Tom Cruise is simply terrific. He is getting better with age as an actor, and he carries himself well. You mourn for him as well as cheer for him. Colin Farrell is basically doing the Tommy Lee Jones role, but he does it well. Peter Stormare plays a creepy doctor, and Samantha Morton is very effective and moving as the Pre-Cog Agatha.
This is not your normal Spielberg film. This film is not afraid to look into dark places, and when personal liberties and freedoms are more important than ever, this film posits the question: When does safety override our right to live, or to even think as we will? The film does not have easy answers.
The ending of the film will be debated for a long time. I felt the film could have gone one of two ways, and it chose the lighter way. I don’t have a problem with that. I felt the need for closure at the end outweighed the message that we already got throughout the film. But again, as Spielberg haters love to do, they’ll suggest that the film should have went the darker way. I simply don’t agree.
Spielberg is the man. He was already one of the greats, and this film just confirms it. He seems invigorated, fresh, new. This is not the Spielberg of ALWAYS or HOOK. It’s not the Spielberg of RAIDERS or JAWS, even. This is a director that needs to be watched, because, quite frankly, I have no idea what he is going to do next. He seems reborn, and I eagerly await his next film. I can’t wait to see MINORITY REPORT again.
Nordling, out."Moriarty" here again, this time adding the last-minute input of our own Massawyrm. I won't be seeing this film until Sunday at the earliest, and it's killing me. I can't wait. I can't wait. I CAN'T FREAKIN' WAIT!!
Hola all. When I walked out of Minority Report on Monday, my mind was reeling. Thousands of words geared up in my mind, readying themselves for an in depth analysis of Spielberg’s body of work whilst comparing it to the existing masterpieces of science fiction we all hold as chapter and verse. I wanted to spill my every thought on the subject and break it down to its most basic elements. This was, after all, that kind of movie. Right?
No.
Minority Report is simply sheer, utter brilliance. It is the movie we all prayed Spielberg had left lingering in him but many of us had given up hope would ever happen. It is the perfect amalgam of Spielberg’s trademark summer blockbuster with his love of Hitchcock and the genius of Phillip K. Dick. It is thrilling. It is suspenseful. And most importantly, it is fun. It needs no explanation; it needs no spoilers.
It is Logan’s Run for a new generation.
If you prepare yourself for nothing less than getting your ass blown out of your chair, then you will not be disappointed. You will have to TRY to hate this movie. It won’t help you. Hate Senor Spielbergo all you want, but you can’t hate him for this. This movie is flawless. Not a bit of faulty logic. Not a single cheesy special effect. Not a bad groaner of a line in the whole movie. There’s not a bad performance. There is not a point where you wish something else would have happened taking the film in another direction altogether. There is not a single complaint I could dig up in my four days of rolling this film around in my skull.
It is Steven Spielberg’s glorious return to landmark cinema. It is the film we will speak in reverence of when speaking of the modern Science Fiction classics alongside Blade Runner, The Terminator and the Matrix. It is a worthy addition to Spielberg’s greatest films. Raiders. Jaws. Close Encounters. E.T.
It is the very film we hope and pray for every time we take our seat in a theatre and the lights go down. It is pure, cinematic joy.
My wife tells me that she is happiest when she looks over at me in a theatre and sees the face of an eight year old on Christmas framed by my trademark beard. I’ve only recently become aware of this face and can honestly say that those moments are my happiest as well. I know how that face feels now. I’ve become aware of when it appears.
I wore that face all through Minority Report.
There will come a time when we all have seen Minority Report and will discuss it with one another at length over cups of over-sugared coffee and a pack of cigarettes. There will come a time to deconstruct it point by point. There will come a time when we give it its official rank in our pantheon of favorites.
Now is not that time.
Now is the time to enjoy it for what it is, glorious on the screen before us.
Go into this movie with as little information as you can and you will come out on the other side a very, very happy film geek. I can’t put it more simply than that.
But when you’re ready for that cup of coffee, let me know. I’ll bring the cigarettes.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. I know I will.It's a good thing they don't have real PreCogs, because they'd be able to see what I'm going to go do while reading MAXIM in just a minute!!
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I can't believe I got in this fast
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Jun 20, 2002 9:01:39 PM CDT
Does anyone know the significance of the Breakfast At Tiffany
by virgilhilts
I saw Minority Report yesterday and (very minor spoiler) when Tom Cruise and Samantha Morton are in the shopping mall that Moon River song is playing and some of the extras have Audrey Hepburn hairstyles. Then Cruise and Morton go out in the rain like the end of Breakfast at Tiffany's. I thought it was kinda cool but does anyone understand what it means? Is Edward Burns reading this?
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Looks like Blade Runner without the rain.
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Jun 20, 2002 9:04:35 PM CDT
Can anyone get the link to the Daredevil teaser on the Apple sit
by virgilhilts
It's not listed under 'newest trailers' but is listed under '20th Century Fox' and when I click on it Apple goes page not found. Grrr
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The reviewer I trust the most (we used to work together) just gave MR two stars and said the film did not hang together as a whole. Many sneak preview reviews of MR have given it fair to middling grades. So it's sort of embarrassing to read the kind of overheated review I found here. I suspect I will see MR one way or the other, even though I have the feeling it is another Spielberg misfire. The man is off-track and can't seem to get back on. After A.I., LOST WORLD and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, I have a feeling I would do better to stay away from new Spielberg films. I will say the previews make MR look like a blend of BLADE RUNNER and THE FIFTH ELEMENT, which isn't the worst thing I can think of.
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Way to go Speilburg.
Gainesville Times: 4 Stars
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A+
Rodger Ebert: "Best since Raiders"
Can't wait to see tomorrow night. -
I work at a movie theatre and we got to watch a private screening last night. I sent in my review, but I guess this one beat me out, little more in depth :-D
But yea, this is easily the best movie i've seen all year. I highly recommend it to anybody.... -
Check out this interview with cruise, sort of.
http://www.lostbrain.com/entertain/cruise.html -
he's danny witwer, not ed witwer. i know it sounds like i'm splitting hairs here, but i've read the same mistake in a couple of reviews and i'm wondering why this would be the case. misprint in the press notes, perhaps? anyway, 'minority report' is fucking good stuff.
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Colin Farrell (I) - Detective Ed Witwer via imdb.com
to tell you the truth, I don't remember from last night, as I was too into the movie to remember many character names.... -
This looks like a good one.
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Today I'm partying with 'Raiders', 'A.I.' and bloody marys. 'Minority Report' is looking like a thrill - 'Clones' and 'Spider-Man' were great, but it will be nice to see a summer movie with a little more meat to it.
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It's rather sad that so many reviews are discounting the actual man behind the story, Philip K. Dick, the most important writer of the last 50 years. Yes, Spielberg does look into the dark places that Dick himself lived his whole life in, but the ending, from what I've read so far, is a complete cop out. This shouldn't be a surprise after the laughable ending of A.I., but what is a surprise is how critics are praising Spielberg for doing the same thing he was criticized for on the last film. I understand, this is Spielberg's version, not Dick's, but why bother adapting the work of someone whose worldview you can't (or won't relate to)? I admire Tom Cruise for his choices in the last 10 years or so, Eyes Wide Shut alone earns my respect. And I also was tremendously moved and impressed by the first 2 hours of A.I. But it insults me that these two multi-millionaires (and then some) think they can patronize Dick by just selecting the cool concept, and injecting their own agenda into the remainder. Don't get me wrong--I'm sure many expected a lot worse, and I've been told the ending isn't bad enough to ruin what came before. It should be realized, however, that Dick's work was largely about the forces working against us that prevent us from attaining that Spielbergian happy ending--usually bureaucratic ones. Kubrick had no problem ending Dr. Strangelove or Paths of Glory on that note, and if Spielberg admires the stuff so much, why not get some balls and try something new for a change? If there's one director who doesn't have to worry about upsetting the audience or test marketing or whatever, it's "The Beard". While not a perfect adaption, at least Blade Runner ended on the appropriate tone (at least the Director's Cut). Don't expect Dick's work to get a fair shake until someone a little more fearless takes the reigns...how's that A Scanner Darkly project coming along?
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I'm amused by the individuals who have recently discovered the "brilliance" of Dick, and gripe that Hollywood auteurs misinterpret the true social "agenda" and "meaning" in his fiction. The man was a paranoid schizophreniac. His works were brilliant in their futuristic scope and breadth, but they fail on many dramatic levels. Trying to find any hidden meaning in his high-concept novellas is laughable.
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Jun 21, 2002 7:00:50 AM CDT
Spielberg is so damn successful that his gifts as a director hav
by jollysleeve
Why do I get the feeling that because Indy and Marianne weren't killed off at the end of Raiders, Lazarus sees that as proof that Spielberg is a cowardly hack?..................Remember when the Academy routinely snubbed Spielberg? Boy, those Oscars for Schindler's List really lowered his coolness factor with the geeks. I can't wait for a similar fate to befall the Cohen Brothers. (Or Ridley Scott, for that matter) The day the Cohens win multiple Oscars is the day I won't have to hear anymore about how they're the greatest film makers alive. Seriously, "O Brother" was basically a Zucker brothers movie, only with gorgeous cinematography. Not only do Ethan and Joel rarely create any characters the audience can empathize with, be concerned about, love, hate, etc.--but they often don't even have the balls to TRY to create characters like that, lest the filmgoing elite damn them for it. Damnit, you're supposed to at least TRY to make films that touch people, at least once in a while, even if it means you might flat on your face. (A.I. for example.) Even if it means the too-cool-for-school High School demographic end up despising you for it. To consistently not even try, to consistently make a Hudsucker Proxy, Big Lebowski, O Brother, etc, movie after movie--that may certainly be entertaining, and it might even be good film making, but don't ever mistake it for artistic bravery.
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WTF gives? The man keeps missing movie reviews. Last major movie review he did was AOTC. Shit is like over a month old. Harry, come on babe! The hell are you doing?
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And speaking of endings (DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT AND CARE TO NOT HAVE IT SPOILED!!!), I love the freakin' total recall-ish ending. Is it real? Or is it his dream? Huh? Huh? Awwwwwsommmmeeee. (END OF SPOILER). I'm so happy Stevey's come home to entertaining heart-pumping cinema. He's the master of it, and it was about damn time he put out another that showed everyone else how it's done. Plus, Williams' score! AH! Fan-fucking-tastic! I adored it! He's come back to us too!!! I have hope for INDY 4 (despite the fact that not only Capshaw's going to be in it, but so's the human sack-o-bones that Sr. Ford is dating. She's so not an Indy-girl. Ugh.)! Stevey's come home! Stevey's come home! Yipee!!!
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I'll take Lost World over JP any day. At least there is a real ending to the film--and it is about dinosaurs, not bratty kids(though Spiel had to stick one in there anyway).
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Note to Idontgivedamn if you are listening(unlikely). While I am flattered you saw fit to copy and paste a previous post and use it in your own, if you do that again, your ass will get a kicking!
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While I can't wait to see this film, I'm not likely to listen to someone whose favorite Spielberg film is ET. Sheesh. I do want to see MR though. The people who didn't like it so far's favorite complaint is "Spielberg is still in AI mode." And most of those preferred AI. For the record, I liked AI. 'Thought it very interesting. Probably the best big blockbuster popcorn movie to come out last summer. Although that's not saying much. But still... I liked AI, from all I've heard, I'll probably enjoy this one too.
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I agree with you about how this site (more specifically, the interlopers who come here just to damn and never to praise) tends to hate anyone who is crowned with mainstream success or critical acclaim. I love Spielberg movies, pretty much every one of them I've ever seen (save THE LOST WORLD), and I loved MINORITY REPORT. But about the Coens, they CAN and HAVE crafted stories with characters that (at least to me) were profoundly moving. Miller's Crossing being one, but even moreso, the dream by Nick Cage at the end of Raising Arizona. That makes me cry almost every time I watch it now (especially now), and I've seen that movie damn near a hundred times.
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Can anyone on this board remember the sheer and utter joy they experienced when seeing "Jaws", "CEot3K", or "ET" for the first time? That kind of joy, my friends, can be had once more. The Beard is Back, and he's got something to say! It's been a long time since Spielberg has really made us think...and think HARD. Sure, he handed us "Schindler's List", which was a phenomenal piece of filmmaking, but it wasn't challenging on any tangible level. It wasn't about challenging us...it was about beating us to an emotional pulp with sheer history and abject sorrow. "Saving Private Ryan", also, with its opening act at least, was more about how sometimes heroism pays off, and sometimes it doesn't...there were no "life-lessons" to be had there, either. He came close in "AI", but the lesson (and the vision) were mired by a certain lack of narrative cohesiveness (it was more like a Dario Argento film as envisioned by Stanley Kubrick as scripted by the Beard), and an almost palpable need for this to be a "challenging" film. Blue fairy, schmoo fairy! With "Minority Report", however, Spielberg lets his "vision" and his need to throw big, shiny "Lucastrosities" (newly coined term?) at his audience take a back seat to honest, chilling storytelling. The notion that "MR" plays more like "Casablanca" than a traditional Sci-Fi epic is not an overstatement. Noir, it seems, is a state of mind that supercedes Genre labels. Like "Blade Runner", and to a lesser extent, "A Clockwork Orange" before it, "Minority Report" is simply a story...but a story that is set in that elusive "Not Too Distant Future". The story, in general, is more fantasy than true sci-fi, just as "Alien" was essentially a ghost story that happened to be set in space (and what is space, but a big, dark, haunted house). No, "MR" is a story that could be fairly easily transplanted to nearly any time or place, and still hang on to its narrative punch, as well as its central gimmick/theme...that "Psychics" can see crimes (murders) before they are committed, and that gives police (or "Knights", or "Western Possee" or "Group of Monks") a tactical edge in preventing those crimes. Speilberg takes the source material, runs it briefly through his patented "Kubricizer", then tosses it gently in his own special wash of backlighting, two-shots, parent-child relationship themes, and effective character motivations, and POOF! You have a staggeringly original, mature, dark, and exhilirating work...a work that not only ranks among the best films of the year, but also pretty high on Spielberg's own "best of" list. No small accomplishment!
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This is a good review. Although I disagree that Spielberg has been afraid of the dark dank corners of humanity before (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and to a lesser extent AI) I believe that this time he has delved into them more deeply. I agree with the sentiment that Spielberg has become so popular that kiki shishi film student thing is loathe him for his optimism. No matter how much both he and his contemporary George Lucas deny it, el Beardo has has heard these criticisms and has not only met the challenge but has matured as an artist as well. And to naysay this I believe is both foolish and shortsighted. For someone like Spielberg to tell the story he wants to, with almost no interference and to do it as long as he has is a clout claimed by few in this business. We as fans should at the very least be able to respect that.
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Vegas, thanks for (semi) agreeing with me, and you're right about Miller's Crossing, Arizona, etc. That's why I made sure to qualify my remarks with words like "rarely" and "often" (because they -do- somethimes take the plunge.) Fargo was another good one, but I think that was like 3 or 4 Cohen movies ago. I'm just sick of people bashing on Spielberg while acting like forgetable (albeit gorgeously shot) diversions like O Brother are the second coming of Christ. (I often feel like part of the reason the "geeks" praise them so much, is because they're "safe." No one will make fun of you for praising the Cohens.) It's the same with The Man Who Wasn't There, and Hudsucker. Well-made and entertaining, yes. But everyone keeps calling Hudsucker a "modern-day Capra" movie, and "Man Who Wasn't There" as a modern-day noir. (I don't remember Capra movies being so relentlessly self-aware.) Every frame of those movies scream *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge.* "Get it?!? This movie's in black and white! Just like those detective movies from a long time ago!.........Lookie! John Mahoney and Jennifer Leigh are talking all fast like those funny old-fashioned movies!" Again, this is practically one step (or three--that awesome cinematography) removed from a Jim Abrahams movie...............Admitedly, I probably wouldn't be criticizing them this much if it weren't for the disproportionately lavish heaps of universal praise they always seem to get, especially when compared to the frequent bashing of Spielberg. Maybe if Spielberg kept making movies like "1941" again and again, he wouldn't be considered so unhip. But it wouldn't be worth it. I wouldn't trade seeing E.T. for the first time when I was five for all the self-referential Jaws parodies in the world.
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The ending of Total Recall wasn't in doubt. Watch it again and look for the "Blue Sky" reference early on, as well as the scen where the man from Recall is inserted into Arnie's dream and listen to the dialogue about what is going to happen next. Most people miss the ending of this film.
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And piss on anyone who says otherwise!
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First off, the murder was not premeditated because Tom Cruise wanted to kill the man who took his son. If that were the case, wouldn't the precogs have seen that vision long before? It is no coincidence that they got the vision right after Cruise discovered the missing reports. It was at this time that the old man was setting him up. That's right the murder was premeditated because the old man planned it. It's the same thing as if a mobster decided to put a hit out on somebody. As soon as the mobster had the idea in his head, the precogs would see the actual murder and the hitman's name would show up. One could argue that since the mobster had to rely on a hitman he had not chosen yet, there is some uncertainty as to whether the hitman would actually go through with it. But this is no more uncertain than any premeditated murder a week before it happens. So the murder was premeditated just not by Cruise but by the old man.
Personally I think the reason Harry didn't like this movie so much was A.)Inflated expectations and more importantly B.) It was the third movie he saw that day and was probably wrestless after spending 5 hours sitting down in the dark. -
Great movie, but, ummm, **very** faulty logic. BIG HUUUGE SPOILERS BELOW - THEY WILL RUIN THE MOVIE FOR YOU - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
1) They make a huge freaking big deal about how if the bandages come off before 12 hours, he'll be blind. They make a huge freaking big deal (shot for it and everything) about the spider pulling off the bandage after only 6 hours. Is he supposed to be blind in that one eye now? They just drop it altogether.
2) They make a big deal about the pain that Anderton will be in when the face-musher chemical wears off. Never happens.
3) WHY DOES ANDERTON'S RETINAL SCAN STILL GIVE HIM ACCESS TO THE TEMPLE???? Wouldn't they have deleted his access immediately? They do it twice, and the second time is worse - he's "convicted" and has been haloed - and his eyes still work for his wife!
Oh, and the ending (especially the newly-pregnant wife and Anderton cuddling), **for me**, completely gutted the tone of the movie. If it had ended when he got put in the tube, that would have been great. It could have even ended with the suicide. Oh, well.
Still, the best "summer" movie I've seen in a looong time. Definitely worth watching, as long as you're willing to disconnect your brain for the stuff mentioned above. -
I can't beleive anyone would consider Saving Private Ryan as one of Speilberg's misfires.This is the first time I've posted but that movie is an example of why, and this is strange to say, that Speilberg is actually an underrated director. At least to some of the arrogant film snobs on this site. But one of the best things about that movie is getting almost all of the actors to over-acheive. Talk about all his movies and all the special effects or what not but it's very hard to think of any bad performances by one of his actors.
{This is not including his wife in The Temple of Doom but hey, he's got to get laid} But just remember, just because his movies make loads of money doesn't mean he should be dismissed because of a stupid public. His movies are very, very good. The mystery is why people keep going to see any movie with Brukheimer {sp?} or Bay or even Will Smith attached... -
(1) The contents of the precog's murderprediction do not make sense--there is a causal paradox very similar to the one in "Terminator." First the precogs make a prediction about this murder which gets stored in Precrime's computer. Knowledge of this prediction causes John to flee, eventually leading him to kidnap the lead Precog, go to the arcade, and happen upon the apartment building where the prediction takes place. It is later discovered, when reviewing the precog tapes, that the precog was also present at the murder scene. Logically, the conspiracy to make John murder Leo Crow must have involved some other mechanism than having him "randomly" find Crow's apartment at just the same time as the predicted murder was to take place. That is to say, there needed to be at least one universe in which the murder occurred without a successful prediction of it, and without the presence of the precog. Otherwise having the precog see a murder whose time and occurrence depended in large part on the prediction happening before the murder is an irreconcilable problem. In Terminator one asks the question "How could John Conner be conceived if his conception predicated the existance of a soldier from the future coming to the past in order to ensure his conception?" It doesn't hold up to close scrutiny.
[A smarter solution to this problem would have involved an anonymous phone mail message being placed to John telling him the name and location of Leo Crow, his son's kidnapper. In every possible universe, as soon as the phone mail message gets to John, he goes berserk and determines to kill his son's murderer. The prediction and his subsequent flight in no way affects his receipt of the phone mail message about his son's kidnapper. That solution makes more sense.]
(2) In the Lexus factory--how exactly does John start the car he drives off in? Do the factory robots include the car key in the car? I highly doubt that.
(3) Why do John's eyeballs work after he's been discharged from precrime? And they work again for his wife! I work at a large software company, and I know for a fact that when someone leaves the organization his keycard is immediately deactivated. To have that not be true in 2054 stretches credibility.
(4) It is stated that removing the banaging from his eyes will blind John. Not addressing that apparent contradiction is in my view an error, but not as serious as the causal paradox mentioned before. -
Jun 23, 2002 11:53:01 PM CDT
M.Report is clearly (to me, at least) one of the most carefully
by ralph cifaretto
I mean, if M.R. isn't a well made action thriller, what is?
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No offense, but there's a whole lot of fault in your logic there. Steven Spielberg is the most sought after director in Hollywood. How can you be underrated if there is no rating higher. The only other sought after directors who even come close to where Spielberg is is Scorcese and Coppola. And maybe Soderburg on the heels of Traffic. But that's it, dude. And, I'm sorry about this too... I disagree with Private Ryan. That was a very overrated film. Granted, most of the movie was phenominal. But still, parts were ass-slurpin' badness. Any chance it had of achieving greatness, was lost in a stupor at the end of that crapfest through the graveyard scene at the end. That was the biggest load of sentimental, and unnecessary, bullshit I've ever seen slapped on to the end of a movie before. Spielberg should be ashamed of himself for ruining a perfectly good picture like that. And for the sake of a piddly 4 minutes of extended footage. Why couldn't he have just let it be? I mean that little scene was just as bad as any scene in Planet of the Apes (the remake). And a movie with that much potential should not have anything remotely that bad in it. It's like if Coppola would have put outtakes at the end of the Godfather. It was extremely forced and unnecessary.
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Overall, I thought "Minority Report" was terrific, but Geez, what does Hollywood have against EVER giving us a downer ending anymore?? Here, just like in the otherwise excellent "Changing Lanes", the SUPER-MEMORABLE DOWNER ENDING is jettisoned in favor of the more CONVENTIONAL, NOT-SO-MEMORABLE UPBEAT ENDING. This thing should have faded to black when Cruise was put into cold storage with that creepy shaved head. Sure, it made you wince, but you'd REMEMBER that ending. Just like "Changing Lanes" should have ended with that office scene where Affleck and Jackson lament their inability to break out of their bleak destinies. Again, MEMORABLE. And in both cases, true to the themes presented to us throughout the whole freakin' movie! I swear, if "Cuckoo's Nest" was made today, they would have reversed Nicholson's lobotomy at the end, or, in the case of "Chinatown", the bullet would have missed Mrs. Mulray and she would have swung the car around and mowed down John Huston at 60 mph. Screw art, make sure the audience leaves cheering. This trend has GOTTA change.
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Jun 24, 2002 5:16:30 PM CDT
i've scanned the talkback, and it shocks me to see that the
by yankeessuck
m.report clearly rips off the matrix.
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With my education and vocabulary, I have no excuse to rely on banal curse words to summarize my feelings for "Minority Report," but really, I am hard-pressed to find a better description. It's just a piece of shit. I have no trouble with the sentimental ending (a Spielberg fingerprint, and God love him for it). What I DO have trouble with is the nearly two-and-a-half hours of lethargic, self-indulgent, overblown crap that preceded it. The dark style, the gritty feel, and the gorgeous film quality were a welcome departure for Spielberg. Understand, I am ACHING for Spielberg to reemerge as the director who made "Jaws" and actually used his creative brain (not a computer) to populate his visual worlds with electric-yet-moving cinema gold. But to HELL with the asshole who first compared this movie to "Raiders." How dare you. This movie was lazy, over-adrenalized, soulless pomp. Oh my holy God, people. How can you love it? If you love this, if you say you really love this, then you are telling Spielberg he doesn't have to try harder. That it's okay to establish plot rules and then break them (Paul's crime was a crime of passion. Why then, were the Pre-cogs able to offer up 36 freaking hours of lead time, when the guy whose crime of passion it was to kill his cheating wife only got 10 minutes?), that audiences will ignore faulty logic because most of them are stupid (please please PLEASE! What police department wouldn't revoke security clearance from a convicted criminal?), that it's all right to "amuse" the audience with Farrelly-brotheresque snot scenes and rolling eye-balls that are beneath both he and the genre (were there extraneous gross-out scenes in "Blade Runner?"), that it is perfectly wonderful to gloss over the inherent power and lasting importance of Minority Report's Big Brother storyline and focus more on the toys we have all seen eight THOUSAND times before in other sci-fi flicks (the very substance of this story, which made Spielberg want to film it in the first place, was summed up in passionless, detached voice over. WHY???!). I'm sorry, but just because I love what I love about Spielberg doesn't change that he failed here. Moriarity was right: Lord of the Rings raised the bar and Spielberg still can't reach it. I will not, WILL NOT lower my expectations no matter how much I want to enjoy a thing, and for any true film lover, you cannot love this movie without first lowering your own bar. Put this movie next to "Blade Runner," "The Matrix" or "Double Indemnity" (films Spielberg was obviously aiming to evoke) and it cannot, CANNOT compare. I don't know what they paid Ebert to praise this slippery crap, but I hope it was worth it. I, for one, will never trust him or Spielberg again.
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SAVING PRIVATE RYAN has to fall in the bad category of good and bad Spielberg pix. Right up there with LOST WORLD. It has a terrific opening, assuming one can stomach the incredible violence, and then slowly everything just pisses away to an incredibly bad climax -- I thought at first it was a joke that was going to have a punchline. But the punchline never came.
I'd rather watch HOOK a thousand times over! Just kidding, of course.
The two Spielberg movies I am yet to see are AMISTAD, which got pretty tepid reviews, and SCHINDLER'S LIST. I am more likely to see TITANIC than these two, and that is never gong to happen.
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