Plot
Las Vegas stage magician Cris Johnson has a secret: he's been blessed, or cursed, with an ability to see two minutes into the future. When a Russian terrorist group launches a plan to detonate a nuke in LA, the FBI try to recruit Johnson to help them stop it. But he's less than keen, and so begins a chase across America, during which he meets a teacher (Biel), who may hold the key to unlocking his full potential...
Empire Review
When faced with the tricky task of adapting Philip K. Dick's futuristic short story, The Golden Man, about a golden-skinned mutant who can see his own future, it seems that star/producer Nicolas Cage and director Lee Tamahori hit upon a simple solution, and... didn't bother. Indeed, Next takes only Dick's central conceit and turns it into a standard big-budget actioner, in which Cage runs around a lot, dodging Russian nasties and Julianne Moore's inappropriately intense FBI agent.
It's all complete nonsense, of course, hampered by a clunky script and Tamahori's uneven direction (which elicits unintentional laughter throughout and, unforgivably, a dull performance from Nic Cage). There are several nice set-pieces, though, which play with the possibilities of Cris' gift, including a meet cute with Biel's young-enough-to-be-his-daughter love interest. Even so, amazingly we can also see into the future; and we see you, dear readers, avoiding this and catching it on DVD down the line.
Verdict
As Dick adaptations go, it's no Blade Runner or Total Recall. In fact - and this will really hurt - it's not even a Paycheck. Next!
