I see very few movies when they come out and everyone else is raving about them. In fact, the movies that I see in the theater fall into two categories. First, there’s the kids movies that my daughter wants to see. Then, there’s the absolutely-can’t-miss movies that happen, maybe, once or twice a year. Narnia falls into that category, and lived up to it. The various Star Wars movies were also in that category, and didn’t. YMMV.

Anyways, I finally saw Minority Report last night, and I see that it would have been in the latter category if I had been paying attention. As a gee-whiz special effects movie it was pretty good. As a movie about constitutional liberties, it was fascinating, because I just know that given the opportunity, today’s US population would gladly give up their rights, and even the right to humanity of a few people, if in exchange there was a drop in the murder rate.

I was particularly captivated by the very brief scene in which robotic search agents (“spiders”) are searching an apartment building, and the citizens unthinkingly stopped what they were doing to have their retinas scanned, and then went back to whatever it was as though there had been no interruption. The only thing we lack is the technology. I have no doubt that we would welcome such an “innovation” without flinching.