Minority Report - 06/22/02

I'm a huge Philip K. Dick fan. Huge. I've been reading his work for about ten years now... I've even gone so far as to begin collecting his first edition paperback and hard cover novels and short stories. I'm a big collector... but it means so much more when I thoroughly enjoy the work of the author (or artist) that I'm collecting. Believe me, sometimes you collect things that you're not a huge fan of... only because there's an investment involved.

But that's neither here nor there.

The first thing I read of P.K. Dick's was, inadvertently Total Recall. I say Total Recall because, unbeknownst to me, I started with the novel of the movie, written by fantasy scribe Piers Anthony, months before it was announced as a movie. I was a huge Anthony fan as well... and read all of his work. I came upon Recall... read it... knew it was going to be a movie... and moved on... not knowing where the original source material came from.

Suffice it to say, the Total Recall novel was a joke. Really terrible. But... it was what it was. The second work I read... and I have no idea why I picked the book up... was A Scanner Darkly. This is, by far, my favorite novel of Dick's. And, unfortunately, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney bought the rights to this novel... with the hopes of turning it into an animated feature. Jesus... when good ideas go bad.

From there I went and read everything I could get my hands on. Ubik, Clans of the Alphane Moon, The Game Players of Titan, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Eye in the Sky, Solar Lottery... his novels are just incredible... one after the other.

But Dick also wrote an enormous collection of short stories... only to be surpassed (in the short story form) by veteran Sci-Fi writer Harlan Ellison. Both were idea men... and they wrote more than just about anyone in the field... save Heinlein and Asimov.

So. The first work of Dick's to be turned into a film was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, into Blade Runner. Now, anyone who has read the novel knows they are two totally different animals... but with a singular feel to both of them. Scott, Syd Mean, Harrison Ford, Vangelis, Rutger Hauer... Fancher... the entire team that worked on that movie did a superb job. They surpassed, pretty much, every single science fiction film that had ever been made (save Scott's other masterpiece, Alien).

But, again, they were two totally different things... and I never really considered Blade Runner to be anything created by Dick. In inspiration alone.

Total Recall was another one, from a short called We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. Verhoeven is an incredible director, and gave us an action packed movie with a great many twists... and the story was true to the source material, while still creating a movie with tons of action and suspense. But, again, it wasn't like to story... except in a perfunctory way... and with the same feeling.

Screamers, Impostor... both weren't so well made. They stuck with the story, they filled in the holes for time... but they didn't really come across as good movies.

Now... Spielberg and Cruise went on to tackle yet another P.K. Dick story... Minority Report.

I hated A.I.. I thought it was one of the biggest wastes of time... in regards to pretty much everything. Story, plot, acting, directing... and the resurrection of the late Stanley Kubrick.

Minority Report picks up where Spielberg left us last... and that's not good.

I'm going to start with the screenwriter, Scott Frank (Jon Cohen also, but he has no other credits... and I'm sure his input was more perfunctory). Frank has had three other adaptations to his credit. Get Shorty, Heaven's Prisoners and Out of Sight. Now, if any of you are familiar with Elmore Leonard... you'll recognize Get Shorty and Out of Sight. If you've ever read any of Leonard's work, you'll know that each and every one of his books is a movie waiting to happen. Leonard's style is completely and totally cinematic... and it propels pretty much all of his work along, making his reads very easy and very entertaining.

So, we can understand why Frank got the job of adapting yet another work.

I loved Out of Sight. I thought it was a very well done film, and I've been a fan of Soderbergh's for many years now. He's a master filmmaker... and knows what he's doing behind the camera and behind the scenes... (he's also a producer).

So, I mention Leonard for this reason. It is IMPOSSIBLE to not stay constant with the feeling of an Elmore Leonard book. His style is a constant, from page one. The dialog, the characters, the settings and circumstances... the man has written over 70 novels and has perfected his craft long ago.

So, it would have been difficult for Frank to screw those up.

I think that the task of turning a twenty-nine page short story into a two hour and twenty minute feature proved to be a little too much for Frank. First of all, for those of you who have not read the short story... the two are TOTALLY different. There are plot lines that are completely and totally displaced in the movie... which is why the film was 'inspired' by a P.K. Dick story. It's one of those things where the writers can't really create something on their own... so they borrow an idea and feed off of it... and then create around it. Basically, that's what I felt about this whole movie.

Sure, there were some original scenes that worked. The movie isn't a total loss... but I think Frank failed on many levels. For one... he was trying to play the audience out by showing them things that aren't really there. Using cliched characters to propel the story. I thought that the character of Ed Witwer was completely and totally useless. He was there as the set-up man... and wasn't there for any other reason. I also thought that Frank did an incredible poor job of killing Farrell off... which was completely and totally taken from L.A. Confidential... the movie, not the book.

I also thought that the character of Dr. Iris Hineman was such a terrible excuse to find out information.

Other characters that I had a huge problem with were 'Gideon', the caretaker of the jail... Dr. Solomon, the eye doctor... who talked and talked about the past, using it as a threat... and nothing comes of it...

I think Frank had too much of a world to create... and used really bad cliches and plot excuses to pull off a beginning, middle and ending.

I won't even talk about Spielberg anymore... because it seems that whenever anyone doubts his ability to make a film... people jump on the 'Save Steven' bandwagon. Personally, I think he's been on autopilot after Schindler's List... and doesn't know how to make a good film any more.

The three main actors did good jobs. Cruise, Von Sydow and Farrell. They acted well... with the material they were given. Cruise can act, plain and simple. Over the last five years he's had two really incredible roles. Jerry Maguire and T.J. Mackey from Magnolia. I think he did an incredible job with both of them. I also enjoyed him in Mission: Impossible (though I did not like the second installment, and I thank God that David Fincher won't be helming the 3rd...).

Von Sydow is just incredible. I love his work, just as I love Christopher Lee's work in Lord of the Rings and Attack of the Clones... and Ian McKellen's work in Rings, X-Men and just about everything else. Sydow is one of a few older gentlemen actors who is indispensible to the make-up of a cast.

Colin Farrell is one of those guys who did some ok stuff, but nothing great... got to star next to Bruce Willis in Hart's War... and then exploded out with Minority Report, Phone Booth, The Recruit and the 2003 film that most every comic buff wants to see, Daredevil... as Bullseye... whew. Weird. He did a good job as well... with the material.

I think the supporting cast was ok. Nothing great. Richard Coca, Kirk Woller, Klea Scott and Frank Grillo. Eh. They did ok, but their performances were always in the shadow of Cruise and Farrell. Eugene Osment... guess who he's related too? Jessica Capshaw and Samathan Morton fill out the rest of the cast... and do ok as well.

You won't believe the hodge-podge of producers for this film. Dig this.

Jan de Bont... director of Speed, Twister and The Haunting... along with being (prior to Speed) one of the better known cinematographers around.

Bonnie Curtis, who has helped Spielberg with his films (as a producer, assistant producer and assistant) since Hook.

Michael Doven... Tom Cruise lapdog.

Gary Goldman... one of the writers of Big Trouble in Little China and Total Recall.

Sergio Mimica-Gezzan... a second unit or assistant director to some of Spielberg's movies. Also, Sophie's Choice, Arizona Dream and Independence Day.

Gerald R. Molen... he was the transportation coordinator on three pretty huge films in the late seventies, early 80's... Bound for Glory, Being There and Ordinary People. What does a transportation coordinator do? He also acted with Cruise in Rain Man and Days of Thunder. He was a production manager on The Postman Always Rings Twice, Tootsie, The Color Purple, Batteries Not Included, Rain Man, Days of Thunder and Hook. He then went on to produce a number of films like Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, The Lost World and some other Amblin films...

Walter F. Parkes. This guy has got his act together. After writing WarGames in 1983, he would go on to produce some pretty neat films in the late 80's and on... including Volunteers, Project X, Awakenings, Sneakers (which he helped write), To Wong Foo, Twister, The Trigger Effect, Men in Black, The Peacemaker... and pretty much everything else that Amblin/Dreamworks/Spielberg executive produced.

And finally... Ronald Shusett. Writer and producer of Alien and Total Recall, among others...

I read an article on Spielberg about how he uses Kaminski for his work. Spielberg shoots the work, Kaminski lights the scene. That seems like a complete and total waste of a good talent, don't you think? Kaminski's work on Jerry Maguire was pretty brilliant... and I can see a trend in all of the Spielberg films since Kaminski has been on board... starting with Schindler's List... and I just don't think it's been all lighting. Kaminski has an eye... the man is a cinematography genius... and I thought it was pretty sad to hear Spielberg shove him off to the side like that.

Oh... and I'm sorry, but I am getting sick of John William's scores.

Michael Kahn is one of those behind the scenes guys who people really aren't familiar with... but he's edited some of the biggest money making films of all time. For those of you who are interested, you should really check out his resume at IMDB. It's completely and totally understandable why people trust him as an editor. He only does good work.

With its product placement, poor writing, good acting, good visuals... this movie is only ok. It is certainly not anything a true fan of P.K. Dick will enjoy... since none of the paranoia or un-reality is present... it's a shame, because with a budget of $80 million dollars... you'd think they would have had someone else, who actually knew what to look for... to doctor up the script, so that there weren't so many plot holes and excuses.

Sorry for those I offended... but Spielberg should really stop directing for a little while. He won't, but he should.