Always keep Running (Minority Report (DVD))

Member Name: drewboy

Product:	Minority Report (DVD)
Date:	25/01/05 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plot, Acting, Special Effects

Disadvantages: Advertising, DVD features a bit boring

It’s just a normal day at the office for John Anderton when out of the blue, the pre-cons have a vision about a murder of passion about to be committed somewhere in the Washington area. As these crimes are no pre-meditated, this leaves the Pre-Crime police force, and John himself, little time to sort through the images given to them from the pre-cog trio and get to the scene to stop the murder from happenening.

Thankfully, the experience of John and the help of a door left open in an identical row of houses, allows him to save the adulterous wife and her lover from a distraught man who has just found out about it. So, after a hard day at the office, John returns home however it is very clear that he is a far from happy man, reliving past memories of his son and his wife through the 3D imaging system he has, and getting away from it all by illegally ‘doping’.

The next day, on arrival at the Pre Crime offices, John is greeted by the Director Leman Burgess who is worried that the impending vote on the national roll of the policing system could be hampered by Detective Danny Witwer who has been sent by the traditional police department to ensure that everything is running as it should. Burgess wants John to keep a close eye on Danny and they become enemies on the first meeting, however as John is screening the next images sent to the division by the pre-cogs he finds some startling information that is set to turn not only his life, but the future of Pre Crime on a strikingly different path…..



Eagerly awaited at the time, this film is where Steven Speilberg and Tom Cruise got together to create a sci fi action thriller set in the future about a fascination process of crime prevention. Set in the year 2054, it is a fascination insight from the makers in how we will have evolved and how we will have started to deal with various problems in our current existence.

One of the great achievements of this film for me, was the fact that they have actually taken a very complicated storyline, with lots of different angles and situations to explain, and made it so that it really isn’t that hard to follow without losing the effect of the action scenes and futuristic feel of the piece. The idea of ‘Pre Crime’ (where the perpetrator of the crime is caught BEFORE they commit said crime) is intriguing. The concept is centred around three siblings who have the ability to see into the future, specifically murders, and through the use of technology and rendering them in a near vegetable like state the Pre Crime agents are able to ‘catch’ people before they commit their crime. The are kept and monitored in the ‘temple’ and the step of comparing this to the power of religion of old very much adds to how we, the viewer, question the ethical implications of this practise. This is a very central theme that constantly recurs in the plot, with the federal agent’s traditional stance is revealed through the story.

The acting in the film is really rather good. Cruise takes on the lead role (naturally) with great purpose. We are introduced to him as a strong and purposeful detective in the agency so to then find that he is actually quite messed up in his home life, bitter and vulnerable, did give him a challenge he has not had in past films such as Mission Impossible. I felt that he did manage to pull this off and as the secure world of his work life crumbles around him, he is very effective in conveying how the character re-asses’s his relationships with certain key characters. The portrayal of the polar opposite character of Witwer by Farrell is very effective and the interaction of the two is very effective, especially as it really isn’t a good verses evil situation. The only reason we have to dislike him a slight arrogant streak however Farrell makes it difficult not to at least appreciate why his character is doing what he is doing. The star of the show however was without a doubt Samantha Morton’s fantastic performance as the lead pre cog Agatha. As the story unfolds, we can see that she has had to deal with many hardships through her ‘gift’ and the way Morton shows her dealing with a world she has little experience in dealing with to find the truth, is truly magnificent and the innocence of the character shines through in a tough and mixed up world.

Speilberg of course, is known for this type of feature and he really did keep his reputation in tact with this. The special effects were incredibly effective as at no point did I think ‘how did they do that?’, I just accepted that that is the way things were in this time – exactly the way it should be. I found that his vision of 2054 was in no way unbelievable and I really liked the fact that he did not go down the route of making them wear ridiculous futuristic clothes made the leap of faith into this time a very simple one. As said previously, I found the solutions to what we perceive as problems in today’s life to be fascinating. Things like cars that are centrally controlled so that they can travel as great speed without crashing into each other as well as the home entertainment and convenience items that are most likely not out of reach for us at the moment.

One thing I was not a fan of in this has to be the MASSIVE amount of product placement used. The number of today’s well known brands that got a mention on the futuristic machinery was simply too much and while the products were realistic, I for one felt it unrealistic. Implying that today’s brand logo’s and slogans would still be the same nearly 60 years down the line when it changes on a weekly basis at the moment, took some of the realism and credibility away for me.

The DVD itself, is chock full of special features. It has the standard commentary and language selections on it as well as not just one, but five featurettes devoted to deconstructing the whole concept. These are very interesting to watch and gives a fascination insight into how it came into being. The other features are interesting, but I got a bit bored going through them and started to feel like they just put as much on as they could to fill two disks and charge a bit extra. The interviews with Speilberg and Cruise while ok, was a bit cheesy for my tastes and was a bit full of self praise on both their parts.


In conclusion, I fully recommend the film as I found the storyline with its twists and turns utterly intriguing and I did find myself lost in the futuristic world that was presented to us. It is a film that can be enjoyed by a wide range of ages and even though it does have quite a complicated plot, it is not that difficult to follow thanks to the direction from Speilberg. I was very tempted to give the film five stars however the over use of advertising has knocked one off and while the DVD does have a lot of features, the fact that I got a bit bored of it keeps the four star status. The best price online for this at the moment, is £7.99 from play.com, and compared to how much I paid for it at the time (£13) I do think that it is worth every penny.

Thanks for reading,


drew :o)

(have included the DVD details as there is no section that I can find for this movie on DVD)

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