What's Next for Nicolas Cage? (2007)

So I've been on a bit of a Nicolas Cage trip recently, and I can't promise that it's going to end with this movie. I know there are plenty of Nic Cage movies I've never gotten to see and I'll continue to cross those off one by one. Next up is a movie called Next. Besides Nic Cage, it also stars the gorgeous Jessica Biel and the super cop Julianne Moore. This is basically a superhero movie without all the flash that a lot of superhero movies get. Much like Unbreakable or Donnie Darko. I like to imagine that his superhero name would in fact be "Next". Find out what I thought after the jump!


It was always the basic premise of the movie that made me want to see it. Next is about Cris Johnson, played by Nicolas Cage, who was born with the special ability to see the future. But not just any future, just his own, and only 2 minutes into the future. The US government is after him to use him and his power to stop a nuclear device that's been smuggled into the United States. This is why I like to think of this as a superhero movie. He's basically a superhero with limited time travel abilities. Until he meets Liz Cooper, played by Jessica Biel. Where ever she's concerned, he can see as far into the future as he can.

The way they portray his power in the movie is quite ingenious and they manage to show it in several different ways throughout the film. Either it just seems like he knows exactly what to say or do, or he'll look like he's had a shock, suddenly knowing about nearby danger, or you'll actually see him live out the 2 minutes and rewind time and make a different decision. There's even a scene later in the movie that pushes the concept even further truly showing how much he can do with his power.

Cris and Liz sharing a tender moment

Something that I liked about the movie, besides Nicolas Cage and Biel themselves, was that they dedicated a good amount of time developing their characters Cris and Liz, and how their relationship grows. This essentially makes part of this movie a romance film. But it's great because we don't just have to accept that they like each other, you see it for yourself and that makes it much more believable. I always believe character development is extremely important in any movie, and I was glad to see at least a little bit of it in this one.

One downside about the film, and I'm not sure if it's due to the age of the movie or budget constrains in production, but some of the special effects just don't look very real. Almost all of them you can easily tell are just plopped onto the screen with some sloppy computer work. I basically had to just turn off my brain and suspend my disbelief in those moment. If you can do that, you should be ok.

Overall I enjoyed Next. I had actually already heard what happens in the end, so I knew what was coming. This could be unfortunate or fortunate depending on how you look at it. But I won't spoil anything about it here. Lets just say that some people will really hate the ending. Luckily I was ok with it, but again, I'm not sure if that's because I knew the end years ago. If you've got time to kill and this shows up on the TV, it could be a good diversion. It's not a great movie, but I still think the ideas in this at least make up for some of the bad. Personally I liked it, and I'd say it was good.