Willa's Flic Pic: Next * * ½

Next
- Lee Tamahori
- Action/Sci-Fi, 2007
- PG-13
- Trailer

* * ½

Cris Johnson: I've seen every possible ending. None of them are good for you.


Overall, I believe the reviews for this film were pretty bad. All I know is that I had a good time watching it and since I was just going out for some mindless fun with my friends, this film worked for me.

Nicholas Cage, one of my favorite actors, plays Cris Johnson, aka Frank Cadillac the magician. In the 24/7 action and neon lights of Las Vegas he disappears, which is exactly what he wants because Johnson has a very attention getting ability of being able to see into the future. He can only see two minutes into his own future but it's still a skill that can be capitalized on by all the wrong people. Naturally, the Russians and the US government.

The US government knows that a Russian terrorist organization is going to detonate a nuclear bomb in the area but they have not idea where. FBI agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) has caught on to the true abilities of Johnson and believes that he can tell them where the terrorists are going to act.

I find it very interesting that Johnson's ability is so limited. Although he exploits it in his own everyday life, he doesn't try to develop it for greater aspirations like world domination. He pretty much just wants to forget about it and blend in with his surroundings.

That 25-year-old Jessica Biel is 43-year-old Cage's leading lady is disturbing. Biel is the current hot item in Hollywood but we all know it's not for her acting abilities. The role simply called for a muse, a beautiful woman to inspire an uninspired man. There are a lot of hot 40-somethings out there who could have done this.

Even Julianne Moore, who played the bitchy, off-balance Federal agent would have been better. Her beauty is surreal in The End of the Affair and The Hours.

Moore is a great actress so I don't know what happened in her role as the agent. It could have been because she didn't have good direction or any context for the character, I don't know. She was playing a Fox Mulder-like character but it was just all over the place - smart then explosive, thoughtful then unconscionable. Weird.

My Geek made the best observation about the bad reviews. It is incredibly difficult to get a movie that messes with time past the critics. Since time travel and seeing into the future do not exist, it's easy for backseat critics to find plot holes or inconsistencies. A writer who spends too much time dealing with the plausible science of time could in turn lose an engaging story. There was enough story and enough action here to put Next on my list of Shameless Picks.