Strong and Moving!

Fresh and Exciting

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

After "Leaving Las Vegas" got released and Nicolas Cage won an Oscar for it, lots of people assumed that he would be a doyen of cerebral movies. Lo and behold, his repertoire since then has been a series of brainless flicks. "Next" is one of them, starring Cage as a man who can see into the future. Totally predictable. I do NOT recommend it.

A Las Vegas magician who can see into the future is pursued by FBI agents seeking to use his abilities to prevent a nuclear terrorist attack. Next is many times over the top and silly but it's a movie about Time Travel starring Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel by the name Next. The things i liked about this film was mostly Cage he was very smart and i liked that he could see the future and being a badass at the same time although his love interest Biel kinda felt forced but still i liked it as a movie it was fun and very smart when it wanted to of course. As for Moore she was good too everyone did their parts well but the villains should be much much better but still a pretty nice film 7.9/10

Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) is cheesy Vegas magician Frank Cadillac. In his spare time, he wins small amounts at the casinos. He does this by seeing into the future by about two minutes. FBI agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) is tracking him hoping to use his skills for the government especially with a stolen Russian nuke on the loose in L.A. Cris uses his power to woo stranger Liz Cooper (Jessica Biel) who has a special connection and affect on him.The idea is intriguing and the movie does it well at times. It works to some extend until it does one of the worst cheating ending ever. There are problems even before the ending. It's the little things like Nick Cage's stringy long hair. It would be great to have an opening exposition of Cris' powers during his childhood. His 36 consecutive hours story is a good one to do. Jessica Biel is hot but him sleeping with her so quickly cheapens their connection. It's got good and bad until the ending. The end is simply a cheat.

In this Lee Tamahori sci fi-thriller, the role of (anti-ish) hero Cris Johnson (aka "Frank Cadillac") allows Nicolas Cage to achieve what he often strives to - but quite often fails to - in movies, i.e. attract the sympathy and understanding of the filmgoing audience. On the face of it, things don't look too promising, given that Johnson inhabits the familiar Cage habitat of Las Vegas, where he performs a mixture of future-predicting and simple magic tricks to far less than packed houses. He's not averse to a bit of sleazy stuff (this is Vegas after all), and his life is not going anywhere much, though he does have some kind of support-system at home thanks to a character of unknown category called "Irv", who appears in a very brief scene but nevertheless makes a remarkably big mark thanks to being portrayed by Peter (Columbo) Falk, whom it proves surprisingly - if quite tangibly - pleasant to come across again, in this sparse but satisfying cameo role. In fact, this sets a kind of a trend for the film, for Cage is at his best here, just as is that not-always-compelling actress here doing very good things, Julianne Moore. She is an FBI agent interested in Johnson because her observations of him for some time convince her that he has genuine abilities to see the future deliberately played down to allow him to go on leading an anonymous life. This is indeed the case, and it is clear from the outset that, while the ability earns Johnson a modest-ish living, and allows him to avoid certain problems, it also represents a major burden in itself that he doesn't especially want, and would definitely prefer not to put at the disposal of Uncle Sam.As it turns out, Johnson (mostly) only sees 2 minutes into the future, and rather just his own future. Having suspended disbelief this far, one might well consider that such a "gift" would most likely prove entirely impossible to adjust to or compensate for, even if one could. Yet clearly Johnson has got used to it, even if it is also a tiresome weight on his shoulders.So far it's all a bit downbeat and small-time, but what adds a great deal in this story (originally from no less a writer than Philip Dick) is that Johnson has one event from the further future he's also been able to see - a meeting with the woman of his dreams which he knows the hour and place of, but not the day. Given that, when this meeting does indeed materialise, it is with an astoundingly, mesmerisingly good-looking Jessica Biel in the role of Liz Cooper (who also turns out to be a warm and kind person), we can readily sympathise with the character who believes this love might help lift him out of his burdensome existence.This romance, and the warm feelings it inspires, give a very great deal to the movie, not least also a bit of comedy, as Johnsons's "2-minute" thing allows him to go through a multitude of different first-line chat-up scenarios, which invariably fail to work with the lovely newcomer.The FBI have a real task for Johnson to perform, and at first they think (wrongly) that coercion might be as effective as cooperation. However Moore's Agent Ferris soon realises the error of this, especially when she grasps Johnson's romantic motivations for doing the right thing. Given (notwithstanding) their typical features as actors - Moore and Cage offer a surprisingly effective and appealing on-film partnership. There are several pretty major plot twists and one very major one, and a few really spectacular moments, especially at the Grand Canyon, several less well-known facets of which we also get to see and appreciate in the course of what looks like (and can be enjoyed as) a mini "road-movie" segment.There are also some nice touches when Johnson does indeed live up to Ferris's expectations and uses his gifts to save life repeatedly, while ensuring appropriate comeuppances for the bad-guys (of which there seem at times to be hordes).Somehow it all gels well enough, and all the more so given that a great deal is left unshown and unsaid. One is absolutely not used to such economy in films, especially films of this genre, and here it pays dividends. It remains surprisingly fresh throughout, and in many ways we are left with the idea that (despite the critical and grand-scale nature of the threat that Johnson is roped in by the FBI to avert), this film is also very much about the overriding need in all of us to find the right person to love - a prize for which we are naturally prepared to do a very great deal, and put up with a very great deal. In the end, one cannot fail to empathise with the joy - but also the burden and fragility and chanciness - of being given the chance to envision one's perfect mate with which to pass through life.