Others say...

"About what I expected"
The premise was really engaging. I like all the actors. So why isn't this better? Well, I guess I'm getting a little tired of the Cage laconic hero. It was wearing thin in Ghost Rider, and gets a little grating. It is all the more frustrating because I have seen him do so much better. Do I have to even mention Leaving Las Vegas ? I can't figure out why Julianne Moore fancies herself a "tough guy" action hero. It didn't really work in "Hannibal", and it still comes across strident and trying too hard. She does other things much much better.

As a sum, the movie has lots of people doing things that they either don't do well or shouldn't even be trying to do. This eventually overwhelms the rest of an OK movie.

"A woman like Jessica Biel and a guy like Nick Cage? I don't think so. "
No matter how well this plot might have been (and I must admit, it was strangely intoxicating), there is one undeniable truth that resonates from this film like the white, thick puss from a zit, and that is the fact that a guy who looks like Nicholas Cage, receding hairline and 44 years worth of aging and ape-like facial difficulties to deal with, and a gal like Miss Biel, 26 years old and quite possibly the most beautiful actress under the age of 30, would never, never, never hook up within their first six lifetimes of living together, let alone their first day together as this film tries to sell us on (I know, this is the longest run-on sentence in Amazon history). Only in Hollywood, people, only in Hollywood.

Think about it. The film spins Cage's character's advances in a funny way, but to propose that he would have a one in a billion chance with a woman so stunning was enough for me to discount anything else the film tried to peddle. I could see them becoming friends, I could see them becoming good friends, but getting their groove on within the first half-day of meeting? PaaLEASE! No way does that happen in reality. Never.

Gary Goldman, the man responsible for writing the main portions of the screenplay, is the guilty party here. He just had to take a very well-made film and throw the most unbelievable romantic plot development since Elisabeth Shue's character going for Cage in Leaving Las Vegas (I know, I'm not very nice to Cage).

That being said, that DVD box is in and of itself worth buying. My gosh, whoever marketed that shot of Jessica in that shirt should get marketing executive of the year or something.


"great until the end"
I loved this movie. Interesting, action-packed, funny. Until I saw the ending. Its a good thing I didn't see this in theaters because I don't think other people would've appreciated me yelling "Nooo!"

"Philip K Dick's original story was much better"
I adore Philip K Dick stories, and am always thrilled when any of them are turned into movies, even if it's a bad one. At least it will get people to read his books (which are *great*) and hopefully it'll encourage more stories to be made into movies. Next falls into the category of an interesting story completely twisted in the movie version. Even more interestingly, if you read the Wikipedia entry on this movie, you'll see that the script went through some drastic changes. It was initially much like the book - and then it was convoluted to turn into what you ended up watching.

In the original story, the main character was a mutant without any thought, emotions or "humanity". He just ate, slept, had sex, and could see into the future to escape harm. The main thrust of the story was that "real humans" were afraid if this mutant went around creating baby mutants that this race would end up wiping out humanity, because they would have the evolutionary edge. The worry was that thinking, feeling "superior" normal humans would be lost while this "animalistic" mutant would take over solely because of his ability to see in the future and avoid harm.

All of that thinking-vs-animal conflict is completely lost in this movie version. Really, the ONLY thing that's the same is the see-into-the-future aspect. Nicholas Cage uses his talents just to make money in a Vegas act and in gambling. The government knows a nuclear bomb is being brought in and they want to have him see into the future to help them stop it. Nicholas falls in love with a woman (Julianne Moore) who has been in his thoughts. You get a variety of situations where Nicholas uses his future-looking to help him woo Julianne, to avoid trouble and so on.

I kept thinking how this was pretty much Groundhog Day and if this had come out first it would have been cool - but it was done SO much better in Groundhog Day that it seemed stale here. Also, where Groundhog Day had believable characters who developed and grew, here the characters were both unbelievable and bizarre. Just why would Julianne go with Nicholas the psycho anywhere? Why are the terrorists doing what they're doing? Why did Julianne react the way she did in the diner (the final time) to Nicholas' repeated attempts to talk with her? It was like they had some ideas but ran into a deadline to begin shooting and just went with the half-finished script rather than actually finishing the storyline up.

There were other random homages in there too. One scene with the government agents "using" Nicholas to watch TV was pretty much straight out of A Clockwork Orange. Maybe someone in the film crew loved that movie and wanted to re-create the scene? It made little sense story wise. Why not have him listen to the radio which wouldn't require eyeball-prying devices? And plus, he's only there for maybe 2 minutes before he says "I don't want to do this" and the big bad agents go "Oh ok well never mind then."

Philip K Dick is famous for his twist endings, but this ending was AWFUL. It made no sense at all for someone who can see into the future and know which path to take. Heck, many things make no sense. Why would he unleash a random situation like "car cascading down a mountain" when he had many other paths which were much more logical? I imagine they wouldn't have made for as spectacular stunts, but that's never a good reason plot-wise. They could have at least tried to make the plot make sense.

It's worth renting this once to see it, just because it is a Philip K Dick story at heart, but this isn't a keeper. It really makes me think that this could have been an awesome movie, if they fleshed out some of the storylines involved. Maybe if Julianne was also a future-seeker which is why she made the comment she did in the diner. Maybe if she was involved with the terrorists which is how they knew to look for him. There were a lot of possibilities in there - but they were all missed.


"Next please..."
I was hoping for more from Next. The premise was so interesting. The story seemed like a winner to me. But in Next they just didn't do very much with it.

A man that can see two minutes into the future gave me visions of an action movie version of Memento. Instead we wind up with Nicholas Cage as a Neo-clone. I wouldn't think seeing two minutes into the future would give anybody superhuman reflexes enough to dodge bullets fired point blank from a machine gun.

Really this is a two star movie that was bumped up a star by an extremely well done shoot-out near the end. Also, Julianne Moore shows us that really she's too good to be doing this stuff. Still, since she's here she does her part gamely