What happened to Minority Report?

[JonathanLB]

I was looking forward to that movie, but it was supposed to come out in 2000 at one point, and here it is 2001 in the summer and I know nothing about its release or even if they've done anything on it. I assume it is on hold right now awaiting a clearing in Spielberg's schedule?

It seems like it'd be a sweet movie.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I'm not sure I know there were suppose to start filming in april but I then that got delayed because Tom Cruise hadn't showed up yet. And I have heard nothing about it since. It is suppose to come out July of 2002 but I would not be surprised if that isn't pushed back

[Jedieb]

I believe that's being filmed in my home state of Virginia. I think I heard the local newsdrone babble about it the other day. So they must be very close to commencing filming or right in the middle of it.

[Dutchy]

Opening this Friday.

I'm very curious about this movie. Unfortunately it opens not within the next 4 months here, but I'd be interested to read all you guys' (spoiler free :)) reactions.

[JMK]

:lol Way to dig up old threads Dutchy!

[Dutchy]

I used the half assed search function. :p

[CMJ]

This and "Road to Perdition" are my only 2 MUST see's left this summer season.

I cannot wait to see this.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I am not sure I might catch it but not in the first week, I actually am really interested in several other movies. I will catch MIB 2 but are more intreasted in seeing K-19 the widowmaker (with Ford and Neeson the latest trailer looks awesome) and Signs, this was the second movie this summer (after AOTC) that I was really wanted to see the trailers give nothing away and I can't wait to see it.

[JonathanLB]

When I see the trailers for Road to Perdition, I get SO excited! That movie looks incredibly awesome. I bet it's the best movie of the actual summer (like not including May, hehe).

Minority Report is going to rule too. I obviously cannot wait... but I gotta see it Saturday when I return home, instead of Friday because I get back from this idiotic place too late.

"One thing is for certain... none of us are going to see heaven."

"You're wrong! My son can."

Or something like that, lol. It looks awesome, Road to Perdition, that is.

[CMJ]

"Perdition" has one of the best trailers I've seen in awhile...it's gonna be fantastic I hope.

BACK to "Minority Report". I just read this review(Hollywood Reporter)...it is an out and out RAVE.

**************************

All good science fiction is really a speculation about social and political trends. Thus, Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," a rousing film-noir suspenser set in a world of labor-saving devices and McLuhan-esque technology, is a thought-provoking inquiry into just how far we as a society want to go to make our environment safe. Spielberg poses the question in one of his most compelling and entertaining films ever. Following "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," he continues to push into new fictional terrain that is grittier, creepier and edgier than the warm-and-fuzzy science fiction of his early career. And he is willing to leave an audience unsettled. Even with something of a happy ending, "Minority Report" is the most troubling kind of speculative fiction. There is much to absorb here, almost too much for a single viewing, which probably means the kind of repeat business on which boxoffice bonanzas are built.

For star Tom Cruise, too, the point of reference is his last film, "Vanilla Sky," where he also played a man caught in a technological nightmare in which his very identity and destiny get thrown into confusion. While going over the top in that film, here he delivers one of his most controlled and suggestive performances. Pain and hysteria stay bottled up within his character, a man who completely buys into a crime-prevention system then finds himself outside that system, battling the very thing that gave him self-worth.

A complex, intricate screenplay by Scott Frank and Jon Cohen derives from a story by sci-fi master Philip K. Dick. The film takes place in Washington a half-century from now. Cruise's chief John Anderton heads an experimental Pre-Crime unit, which takes advantage of a freak scientific accident that produced three psychic human beings, who can see murders before they occur.

In Pre-Crime headquarters, these "Pre-Cogs," bathed in biological fluids and drugged into a semicomatose state, channel horrific visions of the future into a computer. John brings these images up on a large glass screen, where he can separate and analyze the pictures to glean clues about the "victims," the "murderers" and sites of these crimes, thereby preventing them from ever happening. In six years, the Pre-Cogs have never been wrong. Or have they?

(This elite unit operates only in the D.C. area, but the government plans to take the system nationwide. The major plot hole is that nothing explains why the psychic abilities of the Pre-Cogs extends only as far as D.C. or how the government intends to expand those abilities across the nation.)

John is a man on a mission. He lost a small son six years before and, haunted by that crime, buries himself in crime prevention. Then suddenly, the Pre-Cogs insist he will murder a stranger within 36 hours, forcing him to run from his own unit. A rival FBI agent (Colin Farrell) is also hot on his trail, a pursuit made all the easier by the fact that his Magnetic-Levitation car can be controlled by others, and scanners throughout the city track anyone's whereabouts by scanning the eyes.

As John runs, he must figure out not only why he would kill a total stranger but -- if he is indeed being set up -- what this has to do with his tragic past, his boss (Max von Sydow), estranged wife (Kathryn Morris) and a research scientist (Lois Smith) who developed the Pre-Cogs.

The film has several amazing set pieces few filmmakers could pull off. There is a terrific chase between Cruise and his own elite police force through mean inner-city streets and into a robotics car factory. In a later sequence, a disguised Cruise must break into Pre-Crime headquarters and spirit away a Pre-Cog, Agatha (Samantha Morton), who holds the key to his salvation. There is also a very creepy sequence in which a doctor (Peter Stormare), operating -- literally -- outside the law, performs a dual eye transplant on Cruise in the grimiest of tenements.

While Cruise anchors the movie, a brave performance by Morton and rock-solid supporting work give the movie extra ballast. Shorn of hair and eyebrows, Morton is a fragile figure, waiflike yet willfully determined to have a hand in her own liberation despite a time-continuum confusion. Farrell is suitably oily as an antagonist who is not quite a villain but might have resisted the cliches of gum chewing and a three-day beard. For von Sydow, this is an overly familiar performance, but Smith and Stormare offer off-center personalities that enliven their individual scenes.

The details of this future world filter out as part of the film's narrative drive rather than as show-off effects. One of John Williams' subtlest scores in years, somewhat reminiscent of the work Bernard Herrmann did for Hitchcock, brings a certain amount of tension without his usual lush orchestrations. Longtime Spielberg cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's desaturated color pulls all the disparate worlds -- the scruffy streets, cold and gleaming interiors, magnetic highways and the womblike Pre-Cog Chamber -- into a dark, unified whole.

As more aspects of science and crime-fighting in this future society emerge, the film probes the moral underpinnnings. The Orwellian nature of the new technology is obvious, but Spielberg see this less as the intrusion of Big Brother than Big Business. The eye scans, useful to police, are vital to commercial interests to track customers. Technology is not necessarily the enemy -- homes spring to life in helpful, efficient ways -- but privacy vanishes.

[JMK]

That is an amazing review. I think alot of people are just expecting this to be a run of the mill action movie, but with Spielberg calling the shots, they should know better by now.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Friday. :) Yay!

I don't know if I want to see Signs. I'll be scared. :p

[Ilyn Pyke]

I really lookin forward to Road to Perdition, Minority Report, Signs, and even Reign of Fire. Though the latter I am not expecting a whole lot from save perhaps it's action and F/X. ;)

[Marcus Telcontar]

I have to add Minority Report tot he list of must sees for this year....

[CMJ]

Jesus, all the reviews on rottentomatoes are frickin' raves so far!

[ReaperFett]

Yeah, looks good. K-19 is getting some bad uns though

[ReaperFett]

This is funny. THey try to keep it all under wraps, but dont care about most of the world (http://us.imdb.com/ReleaseDates?0181689)



What crock.

[CMJ]

It's 14 for 14 now. Most of them are raves...a few have reservations...but they are universally positive.

[BUFFJEDI]

I hope Report FLOPS!!! it looks awlful, cruise sucks and it ain't Starwars.It's another A.1. Maybe they will start talking about how Steve has lost it and leave George alone for awhile. But I'm sure he can do no wrong. And cruise of course is god :rolleyes


BTW: I got up on the wrong side of bed today:(

[CMJ]

LOL, man buff I guess you did. Spielberg is my favorite director...so automatically I was curious about the movie. The reviews have been fantastic so far...I'm finding it hard to keep my expectations to a reasonable level. :)

[BUFFJEDI]

yeah very bad day :D



Yeah spielberg one of the best.Not only does he have a good eye BUT he isn't afraid to get in there and WORK, and take risks.will truely go down in history as the greatest. But Cruise SUCKS!!!!:)

[JMK]

I wouldn't say Cruise sucks, he's definetly had some good performances, like in the Firm, Magnolia, and he looks pretty good in MR. That being said though, I do think his acting is a little bit overrated. He's good, not great. The end.:)

[ReaperFett]

Cruise plays Cruise. He's great playing Cruise, but sometimes it doesn't fit :)