Minority Report works because it successfully combines a good thriller story with science fiction surroundings.

With Steven Spielberg behind the camera and Tom Cruise in front of it we should expect great things, and this film does not disappoint.

The year is 2054 and for the past six years there has not been a single murder, thanks to a new department of the police who use three "precogs" to predict killings.

The precogs are kept in a tank and wired up to a computer so Detective John Anderton (Cruise) can watch their visions and swoop in and prevent it from happening.

But the precrime unit is under review because of the fundamental problems; are the precogs infallible and can you punish someone for a crime that has technically never been committed?

The whole department is thrown into chaos after one of the precogs has a vision of Anderton killing a man he has not yet met.

Even though Spielberg rarely does any wrong, especially with sci-fi (ET, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind), his most recent outing in the genre, AI, fell down on all the meandering tangents and wandering plot.

But Minority Report avoids this by keeping the plot very tight and not overly convoluted.

The other trap Minority Report avoids is that Spielberg does not get over excited with the computer generated images.

Much has been made of the fact that Cruise learnt to emit a single air bubble from his nose while underwater, rather than use a computer image, and this illustrates what's right about the film. Although the special effects are superb, they are not overused to the point where they would drown the plot.

The film has a bleached, grainy look, along with juddering camera movements - a trick usually used to give films a hint of realism, but still sits comfortably with this film.

But every now and then there will be a prop, a stunt or set piece that will have strong echoes of AI or Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

After Vanilla Sky, Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia, Cruise is still in the zone where he can do no wrong. Max Von Sydow, formerly Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon and Antonia Block in The Seventh Seal, plays Burgess Lamar, the director of the precrime department.

Keeping the British end up is Samantha Morton, who plays the most gifted of the three precogs, Agatha.

Another vital addition to the dream team line-up is Philip K Dick, who wrote the short story the film is based on.

Dick was behind the likes of Total Recall and Blade Runner, and Minority Report continues his tradition of sophisticated sci-fi, even 20 years after his death.

In the end, Minority Report is a very well crafted, slick and memorable sci-fi thriller.

n Minority Report - on general release today.