MOVIE: Next
STARRING: Nicolas Cage, Cher, Jessica Biel, Julianne Moore, Peter Falk, José Zuñuga, Tory Kittles
RELEASE DATE: April 25th, 2007
WHERE TO WATCH: VOD (Amazon Prime, Apple TV, HBOMax)
By Justin Pomerville (2 Broke Geeks)
José Zuñiga, Nicolas Cage, Jessica Biel and Julianne Moore in 2007’s Next
I knew going into this endeavor that there was going to be a very large amount of films in Nic Cage’s library that were going to be a first-watch experience. Those mainly being the films that took over the 2000’s and a portion of his early career. So from this point on, “The Nic Gauge” is a number-generated list that I pick at random and go from there. I believe this is the fairest way and more importantly, it just takes out the deciding factor. Some days, it will come up with really cool films that might become new classics for me, or in this case, makes me laugh at how ridiculous some of these films can actually be. With that introduction, this week's film was 2007’s Next.
Next is a film loosely based on a 1954 short story called The Golden Man written by Phillip K. Dick. The film was directed by Lee Tamahori (director of 2002’s James Bond Die Another Day and 2001’s adaptation of James Patterson’s Along Came A Spider).
The plot of Next is kind of messy when you really think about it. Cris Johnson (played by Cage) is a Las Vegas magician that possesses the ability to see up to two minutes into the future, but only when it affects him directly. This gift makes him the target of a group of terrorists as well as FBI’s Callie Harris (played by Julianne Moore). Harris wants to recruit Johnson to help thwart the terrorist for they have stolen a nuclear bomb and has a plan to use it in Los Angeles.
Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) and girlfriend Liz Cooper (Jessica Biel) in Next
Overall, this movie is not very good. Giving Johnson the ability to see only 2 minutes into his future is a weird choice, and because this film revolves around that idea, it makes the rest of the film feel anticlimactic. Johnson’s girlfriend (played by Jessica Biel) gets kidnapped by the terrorists, and Johnson goes into their lair with the FBI. He just walks his way through all the dangers, giving you nothing to hold on to. On top of that, Next decides that the events of the last hour are just a dream sequence of Johnson somehow seeing into the future by days. Thus, making the main payoff of the film feel hollow. The entire ending sequence is a combination of uninteresting and underwhelming.
There is a line in the film from Johnson that says, “Here is the thing about the future, every time you look at it, it changes, because you looked at it, and that changes everything else”. So the message being he saw how the future would turn out under certain circumstances that involved destruction and death, so he chose a different path. A path we don’t see because we lived through what would be considered the action scenario. It’s not a good way to end a film.
If I could see into the future, I probably would have another better film set up to wash this one out of my head. I place Next on the lower end of the “Nic Gauge” as “Terrible” but pretty close to “Hot Mess”.
