Nicolas Cage stars as Cris
Johnson – a cheesy Vegas performer with the power to see a
few minutes into the
future, as long as the action involves or affects his life in some way. FBI Agent Callie Ferris
(Julianne Moore) is
aware Cris has some sort of power to see the future, so she has been
tracking
him and wants to convince the guy to help stop a possible terrorist
attack. Because of
his past, Cris is
wary of trusting government agents, so he attempts to escape by
hitching a ride
with a pretty lady who has caught his eye, Liz (Jessica Biel). Now, he is on the run, and
the French
terrorists have joined in tracking Cris to make sure he
doesn’t disrupt their diabolical
plan (yep, French terrorists, or, at least, they sound French. Maybe they are Russian and
I just don’t get
it. More on this
later).
Will Cris escape? Will the terrorist attack
take place?
Next has plenty of problems,
but plenty of entertainment as well.
Director Lee Tamahori does a good job grabbing the
audience’s attention
as we watch possible future scenarios play out in Cris’s
head, then get brought
back to current time to see what our hero will do to avoid danger or
get what
he wants. Of
course, this also gives the
audience plenty of laughs, and Cage has some of his best moments when
using the
information, both of which are welcome in this movie.
Sadly, Tamahori gives up the mechanism too
early in the movie, and should have kept it going throughout. However, while we get a
decent action film, Tamahori
is not too focused on details, and should have pushed his actors into
better
performances.
Why are the French
terrorists trying to plant and detonate a nuclear device in America? Are they upset at years of
us mocking the
Metric system? Because
we never let Pepe
Le Pew get the girl? Their
evil plot
doesn’t get much play here as Tamahori focuses on Cris, his
romance with Liz
and Callie’s pursuit. Also,
we get stuck
watching some of the worst acting you will ever see from Moore. Granted, Moore and Cage
can do better than
99% of the people in Hollywood,
but I was
shocked to see them upstaged by Biel.
Moore is overacting and too stiff the
entire time as she
attempts to be a hardboiled FBI agent ready to kick booty at the drop
of a
hat. It was hard to
feel like her heart
was in it. Then,
Cage seems more hang
dog than usual. He
seems half asleep
most of the time (even if he is supposed to be some haunted guy tired
of his gargantuan
burden), but finds a few moments to lighten the mood (like when he
helps people
avoid danger) and show us some urgent emotion when needed.
I'm sure Cage or someone defending him wil argue Cris can't get
rattled because he sees the future, and has the confidence to know what
to do because of it, but we want our characters to wear their emotion
on their sleeves in a movie like this.
Usually I feel bad for Biel
as she gets a
confused look on her face while trying to emote while not wearing a
bikini, but
she comes across as the most engaged performer in Next as she falls for
this
weird guy who can see into the future, faces danger and fights for
herself. It is an
Oscar worthy performance to make us believe
a hot babe like her would be interested in a balding, creepy guy twice
her age
like Cage, so give her some props.
When the dialogue is not
funny, our three writers (Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh and Paul
Bernbaum
based on the short story by Philip K. Dick) deliver some bad work,
especially
when Liz is trying to help out Cris early in the movie, but we get a
good
ending which puts Next over the top.
2
½ Waffles (Out Of 4)
Next is
rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action and
some language.
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2007 - WaffleMovies.com