DVD REVIEW
Movie:
Disc:
The Movie: Though he's retrenched a bit from 2001's courageously uncommercial, Kubrick-inspired A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Steven Spielberg continues to use his enormous power as a director-mogul to become the best cinematic artist he can be. This sci-fi film noir, a futuristic police-corruption thriller (based on a Philip K. Dick short story) that pits clairvoyance against human rights, is exhilarating to watch and fascinating to think about. Tom Cruise gives a terrific action lead performance, and the international supporting cast (Max von Sydow, Samantha Morton, Colin Farrell) is superb. Though Spielberg offers a tacked-on, family-values close to the movie-one that recalls the banality of Saving Private Ryan's coda more than the subversiveness of A.I.'s-Minority Report is still a coup. Filled with shrewd movie references (Foreign Correspondent, The Third Man) and shot with a luminescent blue sleekness, it presents an uncompromisingly harsh vision of the near future and the role that images-and by extension, movies-play in our lives.
The Disc: The two-disc set has no commentary tracks. Making-of material includes over a dozen mini-documentaries (about stunts, special effects, development, casting, etc.); forthright interviews with Spielberg, Cruise, and crew; and a vast archive of storyboards and background information. The supplements make up a virtual encyclopedia about the movie.
-H.K.
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