Hello all....I'm back! After a long absence from the Ciao community I have come back to bring more ...
Hello all....I'm back! After a long absence from the Ciao community I have come back to bring more reviews and to revive old friendships. See ya round! Leila :) xxx
Member since:18.04.2003
Reviews:106
Members who trust:168
I've decided to review another film (as I love them so much! hehe), and this one is quite difficult to get your head around, if your not certain as to what's going on. Here's my explanation of.....
MINORITY REPORT
***ACTORS/ACTRESSES***
Tom Cruise: Top Gun, The Last Samurai
Colin Farrell: Daredevil, The Recruit
Samantha Morton: Enduring Love, Eden
Max von Sydow: Hostile Waters, Truckstop
***CHARACTERS***
Det. John Anderton Played by actor Tom Cruise. John is the chief detective at the Precrime division. Having lost his child in a public swimming pool years ago, being dependant on drugs and having his wife walk out on him, John is dedicated to his work. Stopping crime is a way of life for John. He's not stupid and when all is not as it seems, John is the first to realise it.
Det. Danny Witwer Played by actor Colin Farrell. Witwer is working for the attorney general of the United States, investigating Precrime. Before becoming a cop, Witwer spent a number of years in the church and his faith strongly guides his decisions. To say that John and Witwer take a disliking to each other is an understatement.
Agatha Played by actress Samantha Morton. Agatha was born with a special and terrifying gift. Agatha see's disturbing images and is constantly haunted by an image of one particular person. Suffering a difficult background, Agatha tries to get someone to help her with the image of one person she sees.
Lamar Burgess Played by actor Max von Sydow.
Lamar is the director of Precrime and John's boss. Lamar is almost like a father to John and cares about him. But Lamar isn't the nice guy he appears to be. Underneath his good intentions for Precrime lies a distrubing past.
***PLOT***
The film begins with faint images. We see a man and a woman kissing and some more flash images of a man with a pair of scissors stabbing the man and woman. Then the face of a woman comes into the screen with one word:
Murder.
Two red wooden balls come down a set of tubes. The victims Sarah Marks and Donald Dubin and the perpetrator Howard Marks. In 24 minutes, Sarah and Donald will be murdered by Howard unless someone can stop them.
The year is 2054 and the Pre-crime division in Washington D.C has been responsible for reducing the number of crimes and murders in the country by 90% after running for only 6 years. The reason?
Three extraordinary individuals were born with a gift. The gift of premonition, being able to see into the future. They are called the Precognitives, Arthur and Dashal (twins) and Agatha. Unfortunately all they see are murders that are going to happen. These three people see flash images of a murder and it's up to the Precrime unit to interpret these images, figuring out where the victims are, how far away and who they are and to stop the murderer before they kill anyone. The system is perfect except for one tiny flaw.
Is it fair to arrest an individual when they haven't broken any laws? The precrime unit stops someone from committing a murder, but technically they aren't criminals because they never committed the act. Those questions are being asked by Daniel Witwer whose looking for such flaws.
On the receiving end of those questions is Chief John Anderton, the man who runs the Precrime unit. But some strange things start to happen. Agatha has a prevision of a murder that has already taken place.
A woman named Anne Lively was drowned in a lake at the very beginning of Precrime. When John does a little investigating of his own he finds that specific data was tampered with.
Now because of his digging, John is in serious trouble. The pre-cogs have seen a murder that is due to happen in four days. The killer is John. He now has less than 36 hours to prove his innocence, avoid getting arrested and solve the mystery of Anne Lively.
So many unanswered questions but if you want to know the answers, you'll have to watch the film.
***MY PERSONAL OPINION***
This is one of those films, where you have to watch it several times in order to understand absolutely everyting. I'm one of those people who likes to know everything about a film. The story was certainly different but it was one I liked. In a way it was kind of predictable that John, the head of the Precrime unit, would get accused of murder. The film had to go somewhere though didn't it? Perhaps people could have thought of a different story line for this film, but overall it's not bad.
Being set in 2054, the updated technology had to be something good as well and to be honest, it seemed like an average image of what the future might look like. Steven Spielberg has lived up to his reputation in the sci-fi fantasty category with this film, but it's not his best work.
SImilarly, I was surprised to see that the music was done by John Williams. He could have chosen to do something else with his time, like the next Harry Potter film! hehe.
Not being a huge Tom Cruise fan (please don't shoot me for saying that), I think that his acting was good but could have been better. Or maybe that's just my distaste for him coming through. It seemed that the film centered around the story rather than it's charaters, when usually it's the other way around. As far as know, no-one won an oscar for this film! Doesn't give the actors and actresses much credit, but I found myself watching it for the story and not the acting.
I suppose that if this was a book as well as a film, I would have read the book and not watched the film!
I would recommend this film to sci-fi fans, but this is not a film I watch everyday all the time. Maybe it's something I'd pick up off the shelf after not having seen it for months!
After doing a little search on what people thought of this film, it seems that many people didn't say much about the acting. More was said on the special effects which were good and the pace of the film. Here are a few examples.
"It’s rare to find a film that dazzles the eye, challenges the brain, AND satisfies our lust for fast-paced action, but Minority Report delivers all that and a whole lot more." Scott Weinberg, EFILMCRITIC.COM
"It is a kickass, dense sci-fi action thriller hybrid that delivers and then some. I haven't seen one in so long, no wonder I didn't recognize it at first." Widgett Walls, NEEDCOFFEE.COM
***THE BORING BITS***
Title: Minority Report Running time: 139 minutes Certificate: 12 Price: £9.99 DVD/VHS: Yes and the DVD comes in a one disc or two disc package. Where to buy: Amazon, Ebay, HMV or any DVD rental store. Soundtrack: Unknown Posters: Yes Trailer: Several Director: Steven Spielberg
***DVD EXTRAS***
2 From Story To Screen Featurettes Including The Story The Debate And The Players 5 Deconstructing Minority Report Featurettes 3 Stunt Featurettes 6 ILM And Minority Report Featurettes Final Report Steven Spielberg And Tom Production Concepts Still Gallery Storyboard Sequences Cast And Filmmakers Biographies Production Notes Activision Game Trailer 3 Theatrical Trailers Scene Access Main Language: English Sub Titles: Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish Hearing Impaired: English
Happy trails kids!
Leila :)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Production Year: 2004 - Science Fiction - Director: Alex Proyas - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, Alan Tudyk
Full of flawed characters and shot in grainy de-saturated colours, Steven ... more
Spielberg'sMinority Reportis futuristicfilm noirwith a far-fetched B-movie plot that's so feverishly presented the audience never gets a chance to ponder its many improbabilities...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Full of flawed characters and shot in grainy de-saturated colours, Steven ... more
Spielberg'sMinority Reportis futuristicfilm noirwith a far-fetched B-movie plot that's so feverishly presented the audience never gets a chance to ponder its many improbabilities...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Superstar Tom Cruise is at his charismatic best (Sunday Mirror) in director Steven ... more
Spielberg's terrific race against time thriller (Radio Times).For six years, Washington DC has been murder-free thanks to astounding technology which identifies killers ...
![Minority Report --Two Disc Set (DTS) [DVD] [2002]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78524935.jpg "Minority Report --Two Disc Set (DTS) [DVD] [2002]")
![Minority Report [Special Edition]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/100790967.jpg "Minority Report [Special Edition]")
Aug 25th, 2004
exceptional by (1%):
very helpful by (99%):
