LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Like the hero of its sci-fi thriller "Minority
Report," it turns out film studio 20th Century Fox was accused of a crime
it didn't commit.Final figures issued on Monday affirmed Fox's claim that its Steven Spielberg-directed film starring Tom Cruise narrowly edged out Disney cartoon "Lilo & Stitch" over the weekend as the top film at the North American box office.
Disney executives and most other observers in Hollywood had cast doubt on Fox's declaration on Sunday that "Minority Report" was No. 1, suggesting the News Corp. Ltd. -owned studio had padded its projections.
Disney predicted "Lilo" would instead take the box-office crown when final figures came out.
In the end, the Sunday estimates of both studios proved to be a bit inflated. But "Minority Report" emerged victorious with ticket sales of nearly $35.7 million for Friday through Sunday, down about $1.2 million from Fox's original estimate but still $417,000 over Disney's final figure for "Lilo."
The film, which reportedly cost $102 million to make, stars Cruise as a cop trying to prove he has been wrongly accused of a future murder by a supposedly infallible system that foresees crimes before they are committed and apprehends the offenders in advance.
"Lilo & Stitch," about a young Hawaiian girl who befriends a mischievous blue alien, remained at No. 2 with nearly $35.3 million, off about $500 million from its Sunday estimate.
The difference between the top two movies was minuscule by Hollywood standards. But bragging rights to being No. 1 gives films a key promotional boost, even though opening-weekend receipts typically account for a fraction of a movie's total gross from global distribution, video release and merchandising.
Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracking service Exhibitor Relations, noted that "Minority Report" managed to come out on top despite the fact that it was a longer movie playing on fewer screens than "Lilo" -- 3,001 compared with 3,191.
collaboration. It seems that in the year
2054 there is a good chance that we will have genetically designed 3 humans in
such a way that they become pre-cognitive and can predict violent crime
especially murder. This knowledge usually comes about 4 days before the
actual crime and the Pre-crime police can catch the future criminal. One
day, the pre-cogs predict that one of the cops is going to kill somebody.
That cop turns out to be John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise. Cruise knows
he is not a killer so he goes on the run to solve the murder before he can
commit it. Lots of chases and sci fi mumbo jumbo occurs to keep things
moving and hopefully distracting the audience enough so they do not realize that
this movie has one of the more ridiculous plots around. The movie flows at
a quick pace with very little down time. Philip K. Dick wrote the original
short story, but most of it seems to come from George Orwell's "1984"
novel about Big Brother watching our every moves. The eyes have it in this
future where everywhere a person goes they are identified by a retinal scan
flash. Walk into the gap and a video shows up on the wall welcoming you
back to the store and gives you recommendations for a future purchase much like
an internet cookie on Amazon.com. This security 
pop
up ad leads to the most absurd bypass of retinal scan technology I have ever
seen. In every movie from "Never Say Never Again" to
"Charlie's Angels" eye identification security is always touted as the
best way to keep bad guys away from the computer disks and it never fails to
fail. Cruise needs to get a pre-cog to clear his name, but the psychics
are protected by eye scan security and he has no access to special contact
lenses. His solution stretches the imagination just a bit too far.
Suffice it to say he gets through and continues to get through even though there
is really no way his plan would have worked more than one time. The plot
starts to violate its own premise by setting up one idea and then 10 minutes
later saying something else. Pre- cogs can only predict murders, but then
later they predict that it is going to rain and how a child will develop through
its life. Which is it? Much like Spielbergs's "A.I.: Artificial
Intelligence" last year, he does not know where to end the film.
Spielberg seems to refuse to end his newer darker movies in a more darker
way. He still has to have happy ending and it sort of makes his films
forgettable. There are a couple of twists at the end that are obvious and
poorly set up
especially the "Encyclopedia Brown" like main bad guy reveal of the
suspected criminal giving away a detail that was not public ally known.
Cliches can work, but when the film should be better than that, it hurts.
There are no bad performances here. Cruise gives his standard action hero
deal and is good. He rises above the material. I am not a fan of
Colin Farrell because British actors who constantly do roles with American
Midwest accents annoys me. Regardless, he is probably the best thing in
the movie. His fight scene with Cruise in the car factory is pretty good
and a highlight of the film. Max Von Sydow is okay as the guy trying to
help Cruise get to where he needs to go, but he was better in Flash
Gordon. Of special note is the appearance of Peter Stormare as one of
Cruise's secret friends. He has about 10 minutes of screen time but what
he says and does is the highlight of the film. It is also one of more
disturbing moments on screen this year. Minority Report is entertaining
and will keep you interested just to see how it turns out. Will Cruise
commit the murder? Is pre-cognitive crime control perfect with no
flaws? If Cruise is set up, how was it done and who is behind it? And what
the heck is a minority report anyway? Nothing new here in terms of
revolutionary ideas in sci fi. These stories have been around for a long
time and even though flawed, Minority Report is good enough to recommend.
Final Review: 2 1/2 stars out of 5; 6 1/2 out of 10; B-; thumbs up.