Movie Review (2): Next

By Anne Brodie Apr 29, 2007, 9:14 GMT

Based on "The Golden Man," a story by sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, who also wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Minority Report and Blade Runner. Las Vegas showroom magician Cris Johnson has a secret which is a gift and a curse which torments him: he can see a few minutes into the future. Sick of the examinations he underwent as a child and the interest of the government ...more

Isn’t it interesting that just as superhero season approaches, Nic Cage, the quintessential movie rebel, brings an anti-super hero to us?  This film tells it like it could be – it sucks to be super.

Cage is quirky and individualistic, and it works well in concert with Tamahori’s positively strange but fascinating direction. They present the dark side of superhero-dom, not inexplicable murderous rage but emptiness of the soul that has to do with ennui, fear, loneliness and resignation.

Cris Johnson’s future is bleak because he can’t let people know his power. He would be prey for people more cunning than he is and he knows it.

His gift is the ability to see two minutes into the future. He hides in plain sight as a magician and mentalist working tiny empty rooms in Las Vegas. Where if something were to slip, he would be covered, where people are distracted enough not to care.

He keeps to himself because he has no choice. Who would understand?

One night Johnson foresees a murder about to happen on the casino floor. He disarms the gunman but is then mistaken as the would be killer. He escapes through loopholes he sees two minutes before they are apparent, leaving baffled police in the dust.

He heads underground; he simply can’t risk having to tell the truth.

Except that the FBI is on to him. They’ve been trailing this low key magician/mentalist and know he has something they want. He can tell them where and when a nuclear bomb is to hit Los Angeles.

Julianne Moore is Callie, an FBI team leader with lungs of leather and no sense of humor.  Instead of simply telling Johnson that she needs his help in locating the bomb, she attacks and sends him into escape mode.

Along the way, Johnson meets Liz, another soul in trouble, played by Jessica Biel. She’s trying to extricate herself from an abusive relationship but her ex- shows up.  

Liz and Cris set out on the road trip of their lives with the FBI, police and Russian bombers in hot pursuit.

Next is not a great movie, but it’s okay, made exciting when Cage does his real life acting magic. He really is fun to watch as he dodges bullets and shoots two minutes before real time.

Don’t know what Julianne Moore’s doing here, when I consider her in ‘The Hours,’ ‘Far From Heaven,’ ‘The End of the Affair.’  It’s Clarice Starling redux, but this role allows little development or challenge.  She just barks out orders to her team and runs.

Director Lee Tamahori has an amazing eye. Much of the film plays out in Grand Canyon, Big Bear Lake, and the desert, massive vistas of erupting nature, places where you’re reminded how great nature is and how small we are in comparison. 

Tamahori keeps the people tiny in relation to the landscape which is a fascinating cinematic choice reminiscent of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest.

Cage’s anti-superhero is something to be seen. Cage rocks!

Next
35 mm action science fiction thriller
Directed by Lee Tamahori
Based on Phillip K. Dick’s The Golden Man
Runtime: 96 minutes

Opens April 27th MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action, and some language