I saw 'Minority Report' over the weekend. It was okay – I'd rate it as a "B". The last half hour of the movie was a HUGE let-down. If Spielberg had ended the movie thirty minutes early, there was a natural ending before the movie really ended, I would have given the movie an "A". This alternate ending would have been a very dark ending but a better one than was shown. It was like Spielberg spent two hours showing how bad the future could get then then the last thirty minutes showing how good it could be. The last 30 minutes was as bad as the whole of A.I.

Don't read any further if you don't want the movie spoiled.

It seemed as if the entire "death of Kevin Spacey" scene in 'L.A. Confidential' was lifted and placed in 'Minority Report'. Both featured questionable cops turned good only to be killed by their seemingly good superiors in a sudden turn of face. (Oddly enough, people actually gasped in the theater when this happened but I saw this coming a mile away.)

Other than that the movie was pretty good. Cruise plays a cop , John Anderton, dealing with a drug addiction, the death of his young son, the break-up of his marriage, and the government looking over his shoulder threatening to shut down the "Pre-Crime" initiative. Unfortunately for him, while investigating the next murder that will take place 36 hours in the future, this is "Pre-Crime" after-all, Anderton discovers that he will be the person who commits the next murder.

The story is essentially one big chase scene between Anderton running from his own men while trying to discover who he's supposed to kill.

The movie is satisfying in that Anderton thinks that he's been set up by someone, he hasn't, and that he won't commit murder, he does. Most interesting is that the audience is lead to believe that Anderton has trapped the person who killed his young son, the man he eventually kills, but this is turned around in an interesting way. Plot twist upon plot twist. In the end 'Minority Report' is fun summer fare.

Best of all, Cruise has his eyes amputated, eats a maggot infested sandwich, drinks a jug of milk that is bad and has turned green, and electrocutes a man who promptly vomits on his partner. Can you really ask for anything more in a summer movie? 06/26/02