Minority Report

[dbmottle]

http://dvd.ign.com/articles/379/379540p1.html

[jfrost]

Here is another review:

http://www.upcomingdiscs.com/dvd_review.php?load_this=minority&review_where=date_posted

[toothboy]

Any word from anyone on how "Minority Report" decodes into 6.1 since it's not an "official" mix?

[Halofan1]

Well, this is my first post here. Tell me if you guys like this or not.

MINORITY REPORT

The Movie

Minority Report, to me, is Spielberg's best film, in addition is Tom Cruise's best film. What isn't this film missing that makes great films? Acting? Check, and damn fine performances. Everyone in this film plays their roles very well. Character development? Yup, that's here as well. Plot? That's also among the non-absent.

The year is 2054 and murder is stopped before it can happen, thanks to the Pre-Cognitives, or "Pre-Cogs". Pre-Crime Cop John Anderton is acused of a murder he's to commit in "less that 36 hours." Anderton sets out to prove his innocence, and in the mean time, we are presented a grand piece of cinema. The future perceived here isn't too far away. No question this was the best film of the summer, and I think it's second best of the year, next to Two Towers. Kudos to Spielberg, ILM, Tom Cruise, and the entire cast and crew of this film. Your work sure as hell paid off.

10 out of 10

The Video

This was my first time encountering the 2.39:1 ratio and what is known as the "Kaminski Effect". And I must say, both didn't bother me one bit. Yeah, this transfer is a bit grainy, but as Spielberg says on Disc 2, it's supposed to look like that. The colors are handled very well and the darks are handled even better. That's good, considering most this film has many a dark spots. As for the "Kaminski Effect", I thought it made the film shine on DVD. But like I've said, maybe I'm just blind.
9 out of 10

The Audio

Need a DVD to show off your new sound system, but your pal or gal doesn't want to hear the horrid dialoge of Episode II or sit through Fellowship for over 3 hours. Then Minority Report is your ticket. The "sonic-shotgun" scene sounds amazing, as does the "MagLev" and every other scene here. John Williams score is as powerful as ever, and dialoge is clear as a whistle. Nice job DreamWorks. Minority Report is presented in DTS 5.1 Surrond and Dobly Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Surrond.

10 out of 10

The Extras

Here is where I didn't expect much on this DVD, and I would have been happy with just an awesome presentation. Then I actually popped in disc 2 and was very impressed with the features. "From Story to Screen" is the first up, and features two sub-menus, "The Story: The Debate" and "The Players". The first is a great featurette on how the script guys adapted the short story. "The Players" features all the cast talking about their specific roles. Our next sub-menu is "Deconstructing Minority Report" and goes in-depth to how aspects of the films came to be. First up here is "The World Of Minority Report-An Introduction" features Sir Stevie discussing the gathering of scientists and futurists to get the movie to look like our world will in 52 years. Also mentioned here is how the film has the "washed out" look. John Williams has some interesting comments here for us as well. "Precrime and Precogs" is next, and gives us look at the development of the Precrime station. It then moves on to tell us how the Precogs were designed, and ends with Spielberg explaining the development and works of all the sweet gadgets in the film(i.e. - the jetpack and the sonic shotgun). "The Spyder Sequence" is next, and is a great featurette on how that scene came to be. The featurette boasts a nice breakdown of the sequence and shows CGI shots of when the spyders where in development. John Williams gives us insight on why he made the music like he did. Kaminski also goes into how he handled the overhead shots, and how challenging they were to get done. "Precog Visions" goes on to tell us how the Precog murder visions where done, a la Imaginary Forces(who did the best opening credits ever, Seven). The final featurette here is "Vehicles of the Future" and tells all about vehicles in the film. We see early MagLev CGI and designs of those cars. You then see concept art, early CGI, and behind-the-scenes footage. The next section is "The Stunts of Minority Report", and it covers "The MagLev Escape", "Hovercraft Chase", and "Car Factory". All three feature excellent depictions of their scenes and are worthy of a look. Next sub-menu is "ILM and Minority Report" and it kicks off with "An Introduction". Here we learn Tom Cruise had to act against something that wasn't there and ILM geeks tell us Spielberg always had insight to the effects. "Holograms" hits first, and covers how John's holograms of Lara and Sean came to be. Here, ILM tells how they had difficulty creating the effect. Next is "Hall of Containment", and shows how that wild, but cool sequence came to be. We move on to "Hovercraft & Hoverpacks" that gives a nice view on how the Hovercraft was made, as well as the Hoverpacks used in the "chase" sequence. Pretty much all you see is real, but they tell how ILM added the backgrounds. "Cyber-Parlor" is last, and shows us how actors were filmed in front a green screen, then placed digitally back with the actors who were in the parlor. "Final Report" is a discussion with Spielberg and Cruise on their expirence working with each other and closes with the DVD credits. Nice way to end these featurettes. The next menu is "Archives" and kicks off with "Production Concepts". Here we see galleries of art for the following: "Precrime", "Hovership", "Hoversuit", "Hall of Containment", "Spyders", "Precog", "Cyberparlor", "Buildings and Architecture", "Roadway Systems", "Vehicles", "City Apartment", "Greenhouse Plants", and "Objects". Storyboards for the "MagLev Sequence", "Alley Chase", and "Car Factory". Next here are "Storyboard Sequences" and it shows storyboards for "MagLev Sequence", "Alley Chase", and "Car Factory". Some of the art here is pretty nice. Following are "Trailers" which has the movie trailers and Activision Game trailer, "Cast" is info on them, as is "Filmakers" and "Production Notes" is exactly that. Special mention to the menus, which are very, very kickass. A commentary is absent, but these features all but make up for it. I want to give this part a 10, but I feel the animatics that were on the website should have been included. So, as much as it will pain me, I have to go with a 9.
9 out of 10

Overall

The movie is still one of my favorites of the year, and the DVD is one of my faves as well. The presentation is awesome, and the extras are better than I expected. I dunno what else to say here except you need to pick this set up. Since our BTTF DVDs are screwed, take your $40 and get this. Not only do you save $20, but you get a damn nice DVD as well. Highly, highly recommended.

DVD Overall Rating - 9.5

[tommy28]

Halofan1 your hired:)

great review and keep them coming,

tommy

[Halofan1]

Thanks for the feedback man. I have more DVD reviews, I just need to know how to make new posts.

[DAC]

Halofan1,
Just click on the "New Thread" Button it looks like this => http://ads.kleinman.com/images/newthread.gif

[Halofan1]

Thats the thing though, my browser doesn't show it for some ****ed up reason.

[nycdude]

I thought this was a good movie. Well worth my $13 bucks. :D

[digiboy]

Originally posted by Halofan1
Well, this is my first post here. Tell me if you guys like this or not.


This was my first time encountering the 2.39:1 ratio and what is known as the "Kaminski Effect".



Can you please explain what this is? I did a search here but other than identifying him as cinematographer, I can't find anything that says what you mean specifically by this...

[JLB]

Voila, do a google search and look at what you can get:

http://www.cameraguild.com/awards/kaminski.html

or for those who don't want to follow the link:

"Those who think cinematography is simply the mechanical act of capturing an image on film have never spoken with a cinematographer. Or more precisely, a cinematographer with heart," said two time Oscar winning cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, ASC.

Kaminski came to America from his native Poland in the 1980s. His association with Steven Spielberg began after the 1989 airing of Wildflower, a Lifetime television movie he photographed for Diane Keaton. Spielberg hired him to shoot the television production Class of '61. Since then he has added to his list of credits the Oscar-winning Schindler's List, The Adventures of Huck Finn, Tall Tale, Little Giants, How to Make and American Quilt, Jerry Maguire, the Oscar-nominated Amistad and The Lost World.

Kaminski's collaboration with Spielberg on Saving Private Ryan included discovering different visual textures with an imaginative mix of camera films, lab processes and specialized techniques, such as "deconstruction of the slickness that you usually get with modern lenses" – in Spielberg's words.

Kaminski achieved that look by stripping the coatings off the lenses. He also flashed the film and used the Technicolor ENR process to alter contrast. Spielberg wanted deeply saturated colors, an idea he attributes to watching 16mm Signal Corps Ekatachrome footage documenting the invasion of France by the Allies.

"We wanted to create the illusion that there were several combat cameramen landing with the troops at Normandy," Kaminski said in an American Cinematographer interview. "… We succeeded in emulating the look of that footage for the invasion scenes… with both camera tricks and other technological means."

Lenses in 1940 were technically inferior to today's, so Kaminski had a set of older Ultra- speeds stripped of their protective coatings to emulate the look of 50 years ago.

"Interestingly, when we analyzed the lenses, the focus and sharpness didn't change very much, though there was some deterioration; what really changed was the contrast and color rendering. The contrast became much flatter. Without the coatings, the light enters the lens and bounces all around, so the images become kind of foggy but still sharp. Also, it's much easier to get flares, which automatically diffuses the light and the colors to a degree and lends a little haze to the image."

Kaminski would often mismatch the lenses if he had two cameras running, using one with coated Ultra-speeds and one with stripped lenses. That lent a certain lack of continuity in picture quality, suggesting an appropriate disjointedness.

Kaminski and his crew shot many feet of film with the camera shutter set at 45 or 90 degrees, a technique that was especially effective in filming explosions. Every particle of blasted sand seems to be visible. The idea, which was born in pre-production testing, helped to create a sense of reality and urgency.

Another technique was borrowed from cinematographer Douglas Milsome, BSC, who also used it in an epic war film, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. The camera's shutter is thrown out of sync to create a streaking effect from the top of the frame to the bottom. It's another way to enhance realism by giving the images the less-than-perfectly controlled look of actual battle footage.

Kaminski, who recently completed his directorial debut for New Line Cinemas—the supernatural thriller, Lost Souls, said he hopes to now switch between directing and being a director of photography.

Next Kaminski is going to partner up with Spielberg again in the shooting of Minority Report starring Tom Cruise and Bill Condon.

Kaminski graduated from Columbia College in Chicago, then went on to the American Film Institute in Washington, D.C. He is married to actress Holly Hunter.

[Iron_Giant]

Rented it and watched on Christmas night.

Much better than I thought it would be. I guess about 75% of the plot (I do that to most thrillers), but it was really cool movie.

Great rental, very good buy if you find a good deal ($13 or below).

[jough]

Maybe it's just me, but the "extras" on disc two seemed light and promotional in nature.

When you compare them to really good docs, such as "The Beginning" on the Phantom Menace DVD, or the new touchstone LOTR:TFOTR:EE 2-disc 6-hour documentary, well, the Minority Report extras seem a bit anemic.

The ILM bits were interesting but not in-depth (compare with the extras even on Jurassic Park, for instance), the interviews were short and self-congratulatory (or Cruise complimenting Spielberg, and vice versa), and overall the entire second disc felt like a long commercial.

I wish they went a little deeper into the aspects of the story and characters. I would've liked to have *seen* the "brain trust" they interviewed to discuss the future technology, and it would have been really nice to have spent more time with the underrated Kaminski.

It's a shame, because this film is an instant-classic, and deserves better, IMHBAO.

I've already *bought* the disc. I don't need to be sold on it. You had me at "hello."


-- Jough

[theneobez]

where are you guys finding this movie for 13 dollars? Where's the best place I can find it for at the moment?

[chsidwel]

A little off topic, but I'm having the same problem as Halofan1.

There are no icons anywhere for me. I've even tried it in Netscape as well. I can't see if a thread is locked, I can't jump to the last post in a thread and I can't start a new thread. I can see the smiley faces and stuff within the text, but there is no functionality on a post either. I can't edit a post or click on someones user information. This just started about a month ago. I can't seem to fix it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

[cartman]

Originally posted by chsidwel
A little off topic, but I'm having the same problem as Halofan1.

There are no icons anywhere for me. I've even tried it in Netscape as well. I can't see if a thread is locked, I can't jump to the last post in a thread and I can't start a new thread. I can see the smiley faces and stuff within the text, but there is no functionality on a post either. I can't edit a post or click on someones user information. This just started about a month ago. I can't seem to fix it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

You have to turn your ad blocker off. The owner put the icons on his ad server so that in order to actually use the forum for anything other than browsing, you must let his ads through. I know a few people that weren't going to frequent due to the "screwy message board" (as they put it) until I told them what they had to do.

[chsidwel]

Wow, I didn't even know I had an ad blocker. How do I disable it? I looked under the advanced setting under internet options on IE, but didn't see anything. Please help. Thanks.

[jough]

My ad blocker blocks the ads but still lets the icons through. I think mine works by both size and type. Pretty slick, I guess. And a little annoying of the site owners, eh?

-- Jough

[Save Ferris]

I rented this movie and thought it was ridiculous and predictable and borring!

It also had some STUPID attempts at humor:
'O NO my eyeballs are rolling away!', 'O NO dont eat the bad sandwich--O NO not the spoiled milk too!', HA HA the hacker guy is afraid the precog will know about his lustful thoughts!

It also had plot holes and dead ends:
for example the eye doctor has a grudge against the main character...o wait no he dosnt, what a nice guy (???). If he takes off his eye bandages HE WILL GO BLIND! O wait no its ok if you shine a light into it to scan it, you wont go blind after all. (???) Even silly animated flowers for no reason at all--is the lady a psychiatrist working with precogs or is she a biologist engineering plants with special powers? The 'Harry Potter' magical plants seem to be there just 'because they can' make them with CGI. Also, gee the subway train can alert the police where John is but when he uses his eyeball to access restricted areas (which he still has athority for??) no alarm is triggered??!! Plot holes a mile wide! Even when his wife used his eyeball after his arrest!! Even the Sci-fi channel has better continuity. The Precogs-- HEY DONT touch them! They're special and dont respond to people theyre not really like humans ok hmmm well gee when he took her out of her special sauce, that one girl only suffered from being cold and walking like shes drunk. Give me a break either they need to be in the soup or they dont, they didnt even need a plug into thier nervous system (ala matrix) the hacker guy can just stick electrodes on her skin and download. This is plot for the dumb.


and it hammerd home lots of plot that had already been revealed by other characters. There were so many "AHA! bet you didnt see that coming!" moments that of course had already been revealed in the previous scenes. The FX were old hat. Lots borrowed from Blade Runner or Fifth Element.

This movie couldnt end soon enough for me.

[Shon]

Well, Im not good at reviews so Im not goin to try to get indepth with one, but I did think it was a very good film. Pretty much kept me on my toes the entire time. Cruz gave a great performance. I have yet to check out the extras but will soon. It did have some ring to The Fifth Element, but only slightly due to the female cog (sp?). All in all a great film in which many of my friends enjoyed.

Actually, I did not notice any real attempts at humor, did not think they were trying to attempt any.

Save Ferris- you must have a little pre-cog in you to know what the future scenes were gonna reveal. -smile-

[Save Ferris]

It reflected Fifth Element because of the futuristic city and traffic scenes i think also.

It pounded home lots of the plot several times in case we missed it the first time like the 'echos' of the murder kind of thing. The 'bad guy' was presented with the *full* explanation of his crime 2 times at least--very sloppy editing. It just seemd to me several times where there was supposed to be a 'surprise' and it came off being underwhelming.

The 'humor' elements seemed to be genuine attempts at humor because (if i remember correctly) of the music cues. Check this if u have the DVD. I seem to remember cartoony 'waah waah's' and loopy music. (no really!)

o yea another plot hole: Ok the bad guy put the body of the FBI guy in tom cruises apartment to look like cruise killed him... HOW? Wasnt his apartment being staked out? Did this old man drag the FBI guy out of his home and carry him into a monitored apartment? Its just silly to try to make that fit. Besides, wasnt cruises gun admitted as evidence after shooting the first guy? Every cop on the case would know Cruise didnt have his gun after that first shooting! Who wrote/edited this schlock??

[Shon]

Aight, when I watch it again I'll keep an eye out for all of this.

[jough]

Well, just to address a few things...


The "fed" guy (Colin Ferrel?) had Anderton's gun in his posession from the crime scene (although I don't know why it wouldn't be turned in to the evidence room - after all, it was the "murder weapon."

Secondly, the fed guy called the "boss guy" to Anderton's apartment - so he didn't have to move the body anywhere - it was already there.

Yes, a little too "neat." Also, how in the world did Anderton still have access? As a network administrator, it's so easy, even with Windows NT, to suspend an account. Is security that bad in the future?

Also, I've a feeling those screens and the holo projector is going to look very quaint and old fashioned when 50 years time has really passed. Some of that future technology isn't really that far away.

[WillySi7]

yes where do you find it for $13 ?? (first week sale?)

[theneobez]

Just got my copy, it is AMAZING. I still love the movie just as much as my first viewing back in June. I checked out some of the extras, they're great as well. Still my pick for best of 2002. Highly reccomended.
And I've noticed the John Williams score much more this time, it's underrated in my opinion.

[jough]

Great score, yes. I've been enjoying it each time I watch the film.

But the extras are really weak. Did you think they were good, theneobez? They're very fluffy and promotional, especially the interviews where Cruise says what a genius Spielberg is and vice versa.

Maybe I'm just spoiled from really good docs, like on Taxi Driver or even the Godfather.

-- Jough

[theneobez]

To be honest, I havn't gave them much of a look just yet, I took a quick look at the storyboard's with the film sound running, That was very cool. And the animated menus were incredible. Like I said, what I saw I thought was great, but I havn't got to the meat of the extras, so I guess the statement in the previous post was a bit premature, sorry. I'll leave my conclusions open for the time being though, I'm going to give a long look at all the extras this week, but I honestly believe the movie itself is more than enough reason to own the dvd. But I guess I'd be a bit biased, it was my favorite film all year. . .I'll take a look at the extras pretty soon. I hope they are atleast somewhat satisfactory. . .

[Save Ferris]

Im interested theonebez, what you think of the issues i mentioned?

[theneobez]

I can definitely understand where you're coming from, to be honest, but those relatively "small" flaws in the movie are really just that, small, to me atleast. I'm definitely not saying this movie is without flaws. . . and it's not for everyone, but I think the things you pointed out were lookin far too close, IMO.
SPOILERS

The guy with the grudge who gives Anderton the surgery, I can see where you're coming from, he was obviously a flawed character. But I think his placement was there to show more of the type of guy Anderton had been in the past, the guys he locked up, etc.
The "Oh no, don't touch the precogs," arguement is warranted as well. . .but I just didn't look that far into it, and I REALLY don't care to. Yeah, I guess you're correct, they should have been more definitive about certain things in the movie, they seemed to contradict what appeared to be factual statements in the movie, but they were really unimportant if you ask me. I wouldn't call it ignorance, but really, I just love the whole thrill of the movie, the score, and STILL most of all the character, the dialogue, and the rock solid story. Yeah, there were alot of gadgets that sort of came up from nowhere, kind of magical, I can see where that point of view would come from, but I believe the film to be strongly imaginative, and you have to keep an open mind for things like that.

I'm not criticizing your view, just defending mine. No movie is for everyone I guess.

[Save Ferris]

Fair enough. I will say Tom Cruise did act very well in this one. As well as the FBI guy who has a thick accent that he covered very well.

[theneobez]

Just got done watching the documentary material on Disc 2. . .I've gotta say, it was really insightful. When I usually think of corporate and fluff I think of those crap HBO 20 minute inside looks or the E! Documentaries, or even worse, the promotional campaign material. There nothing on this disc that came near that stuff. I found all of it very insightful, every now and then there would be some ass kissing, compliments, this is how we met, this is how Steven really excels, etc., but for the most part, I really loved the stuff.
The first part is broken into two 9 minute featurettes about the adaptation of the Phillip K. Dick story, and the Characters.
The first 2 minutes are basically about how Tom and Steven met, but after that annoyance, the material really picks up the pace.
In the Deconstruction part of the DVD (my personal favorite section) there's alot of insightful material on several of the high production scenes, including the Spyder Sequence (beautiful concept images). The compliments were brought down to a minimal, which is good. My favorite person interviewed was Kaminsky, the Director of Photography on all of Spielberg's latest films, for a while now. He was informative and explained what his thought process and attempts were on several of the scenes. I only wish he was interviewed more for the dvd.
The Stunts section, unfortunately, took a slight downturn. There's really good stuff here, but I found most of this was spent just saying how difficult it was, or how great Tom Cruise was at stunts, how skilled and seasoned he had become etc. The scenes shown, however, were great, and they contained alot of insight in themselves. Fairly good, but it could have been longer, more in depth. My least favorite section, without question.
Then comes the ILM section. The material here is quite good, they take you through the steps of how they began to construct each of the scenes, along with some interesting facts. I still thoroughly believe the special effects in Minority Report are some of the best and believeable yet in any movie to use CGI heavily, so all of this was very interesting, and ass kissing was kept to a relative minimal.
Then comes the Final Report, with Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg.
They compliment each other, but I didn't find it too annoying or too far over done, because A.) The scenes shown that corresponded with what they each talked about are very nice, and B.) You're treated with a bit of insight in each of their habits and their relationship, so it's not really half bad.
Overall, the 80 minutes of documentary material on Minority Report gets . . . . an 8.5/10 for me. What's there is great, the quality is high, and it's definitely an above average documentary.
The extras for the movie as a whole get an 8.5 as well. The Archive galleries of production concepts, still shots, and set designs were incredibly detailed and plentiful, the excellent 3 trailers are here, and the usual Cast info and the rather lengthy Production Notes are present as well. And don't forget the excellent Storyboard plays with the film's actual sound running. You get a good idea of how it was planned and seen on paper with the film's pace.
Overall, not the best set of extras, not the most plentiful, but still, very good stuff.

[darqleo]

I totally agree with you Save Ferris. I'm very glad I rented this first. Also I don't think Spielberg was the right director for this either, he keeps having his "light" moments pop up when it should be really dark and gritty ala Blade Runner. Kind of like how A.I. was, Speilberg just didn't follow through.

[GatorDeb]

My mom stated that the end is not a dream because the precog saw their future child all grown up, going to college, etc. Sean didn't get to be that big.

I have a question. At the beginning we learn that red balls are for crimes of passion. Wasn't the Anderton killing supposed to be a crime of passion? He didn't pre-meditate it, he decided to kill Leo Crow once he found the pictures. To me that's the same scenario as the one in the beginning... hence why no red ball?

[Pants]

Originally posted by GatorDeb
My mom stated that the end is not a dream because the precog saw their future child all grown up, going to college, etc. Sean didn't get to be that big.

I think you need to watch it again. The precog was seeing what "would have happened" to there son had he not died, not what would happen to their next child.

[Neitzl]

Originally posted by GatorDeb
My mom stated that the end is not a dream because the precog saw their future child all grown up, going to college, etc. Sean didn't get to be that big.

I have a question. At the beginning we learn that red balls are for crimes of passion. Wasn't the Anderton killing supposed to be a crime of passion? He didn't pre-meditate it, he decided to kill Leo Crow once he found the pictures. To me that's the same scenario as the one in the beginning... hence why no red ball?



I think he had planned all along what he was going to do if he ever found the murderer of his son, he even says so himself. All he needed to know was WHO that person was. When everything was set into motion, it was a murder already planned, just only when everything fell into place.
Hope that I made some sense.

Neitzl

[GatorDeb]

Originally posted by Pants
I think you need to watch it again. The precog was seeing what "would have happened" to there son had he not died, not what would happen to their next child.
Ah, but remember how the distinction is made clear that a precog cannot see what may happen, only what will :)