The movie hinges on a wonderfully fascinating science fiction idea from Phillip K. Dick (who wrote the short story this was based on, as well as the ones for Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Imposter): the government is using people who can see violent crimes of the future to prevent those crimes from happening.  The trouble starts when the program (which is still in its trial phase) comes under scrutiny by the government, and one of the officers in the special "Pre-Crime Unit" (John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise) is accused of a murder in the future.  In the process of trying to clear his own name, he uncovers a few secrets about the program.  Like I said, a few great plot twists.  There's a good reason that MR takes a whole two and a half hours to tell its story.

Okay, so it's a fantastic story.  What about the movie part of the movie?

First, I've got to say that this movie contains a few classic stand-bys of the action genre: there's a car chase (although with a great futuristic take) and a fight scene in a factory (again, a new look at an oldie).  And, like so many of today's movies, MR takes plenty of liberties with certain things to make the story work better; that doesn't cause any real trouble.  For instance, the cool fight scene in the factory would have suffered if there had been any human workers or supervisors present: so there weren't any.  This sort of tactic is perfectly acceptable, as long as filmmakers understand the natural consequence: namely, the viewer's immersion in the movie is turned down a notch.  As the mind notices the fact or unbelievable thing ("Gee, there should have been some sort of supervision" or "No way we'll have changed all the roads in such a short time"), the distance between the viewer and movie is increased, but enjoyment is not decreased.

Overall, I liked this movie immensely.  It's a "must-see" for sci-fi fans, mystery fans, Phillip K. Dick fans, Tom Cruise fans, and people who see every movie that comes along.

Jess K