Review – Minority Report

A tale by Phillip K. Dick turned into a showcase of art direction and special effects? Wow, that’s never been done before. As in the past, this effort by Stephen Spielberg serves up a sappy story line parading wooden characters across elaborately-decorated sets. In keeping with Dick-based productions, the plot centers around elaborate twists and turns driven by technology; in this go-around cops use information from creepy psychics who live in a big tub to arrest murderers (or pre-murderers, if you prefer) before they can commit their special crimes. Tom Cruise stars as the chief pre-cop, forced to go on the lam when the psychics peg him as the next killer. Or do they? And so on. Some of the effects are kind of cool, particularly the snazzy future cars and the little spider robots the cops use to help track fugitives. Otherwise, however, you’d be somewhat better off renting Total Recall and a lot better off renting Blade Runner (two previous tales of future malaise courtesy Phillip K.). See if desperate