Next

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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.


NYTimes

Next (2007)

Joseph Lederer/Paramount Pictures and Revolution Studios

Jessica Biel and Nicolas Cage team up to save the world in “Next.”

Glimpsing the Future (and a Babe)

By MANOHLA DARGIS

Published: April 27, 2007

In “Next,” a crummy action and speculative-fiction hybrid, Nicolas Cage plays a guy who can see into the future two minutes at a time. It’s too bad that Mr. Cage couldn’t tap into those same powers of divination to save himself from making yet another inexplicably bad choice in roles. Once one of the more enthralling actors in Hollywood (“Leaving Las Vegas”), Mr. Cage these days seems all too content to waste his and the audience’s time in tacky genre throwaways, not that“The Wicker Man” or at least the hilarious highlights reel of same that eventually made it onto YouTube didn’t provide some serious yuks.

What’s bittersweet about all this is that Mr. Cage remains an insistently watchable screen presence, as even this dopey movie proves. In his day job, Mr. Cage’s Cris Johnson works in a low-rent Vegas casino as a no-frills magician pulling doves out of his coat sleeves and modest factoids out of the minds of his audiences. He supplements his earnings by playing the slots and blackjack. Allergic to trouble and the overly curious, he keeps his profile low by betting only against the house, trying to cash out before he attracts too much attention. Ah, but there’s trouble afoot in the form of a pushy F.B.I. agent named Callie Ferris, played by Julianne Moore, yet another performer who seems intent on breaking the hearts of the faithful.

Jaw locked, Ms. Moore seems terribly unhappy to be here, and it’s no wonder. Her character is working the anti-terrorism beat, which requires her to be at once expert at her job, because she’s one of the stars of the show, and a 

unusual punishment while talking about the greater good, mostly because the screenwriters are obviously bored. She may not be nice, but, dammit, she is on the side of might and right. You see, there’s a Russian nuclear device gone missing, and Agent Ferris knows, despite the eyeball-rolling of her superiors and underlings, that the only thing that stands between humanity and annihilation is a Las Vegas magician with a taste for martinis and blondes.

There’s more, barely. Directed by Lee Tamahori and written by Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh and Paul Bernbaum, “Next” is based on a nifty short story by Philip K. Dick titled “The Golden Man.” First published in 1954 in the science-fiction magazine If, the story imagines a world in which mutants are rounded up and destroyed. The title character, a literally golden-hued mutant said to resemble a god, but whose intelligence comes nearer to that of an animal, can see far enough into the future to evade capture. Mr. Dick explained that the story was written when the trend in SF literature was to glorify mutants, which he saw as a self-serving, “dangerous hunger for power on the part of neurotic people.”

Mr. Dick’s story and “Next” have so little to do with each other that the writer’s die-hard fans can relax: the great man’s reputation has not been tainted by yet another knuckleheaded adaptation. Mr. Cage and Ms. Moore have it worse, since the spectacle of these two grimacing through so much risible dialogue and noisy action seems as wearing to them as to us.

About the only performer who comes out unscathed here is Jessica Biel, who plays Cris’s love interest, a honey-dipped blonde named Liz Cooper. Ms. Biel enters in a gauzy light and sticks around to make goo-goo eyes at Mr. Cage in an itty-bitty towel, delivering a vision of gilded perfection that comes tantalizingly close to Mr. Dick’s original conception.

“Next” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Among the palpitating distractions are gun violence, explosions and the sight of Ms. Biel in a low-cut shirt, a sheet and that towel.

NEXT

Opens today nationwide.

Directed by Lee Tamahori; written by Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh and Paul Bernbaum, from a screen story by Mr. Goldman based on the short story “The Golden Man” by Philip K. Dick; director of photography, David Tattersall; edited by Christian Wagner; music by Mark Isham; production designer, William Sandell; produced byNicolas Cage, Norm Golightly, Todd Garner, Arne L. Schmidt and Graham King; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 96 minutes.

WITH: Nicolas Cage (Cris Johnson), Julianne Moore (Callie Ferris), Jessica Biel (Liz Cooper), Thomas Kretschmann (Mr. Smith), Tory Kittles (Cavanaugh) and Peter Falk (Irv).


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MOVIE INFO

A man with the ability to see the future and change the outcome of events before they occur is forced to choose between saving himself and saving the world in this supernatural thriller starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day, The Edge). Cris Johnson (Cage) is a Las Vegas magician who possesses the unique ability to witness the events of the immediate future moments before they happen. As a child Cris was subjected to a series of cruel experiments by government scientists and doctors, but a change of name and a new identity allowed the tortured psychic to elude detection and start a new life away from the prying eyes of his former captors. Though his clairvoyant vision only extends a few minutes into the future, it has still allowed Cris to eke out a living as a low-rent Las Vegas magician while earning a little extra cash at the blackjack tables. Up to this point in his life Cris has never used his power for anything substantial, but when he experiences a vision of Los Angeles being incinerated in a nuclear holocaust, the small-time magician realizes that he could hold the key to saving millions of lives. But as low as he has tried to lie in recent years, Cris has never completely escaped detection by the government. Now, as terrorists prepare to unleash the ultimate horror on an unsuspecting city, FBI counter terror agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) sets out to capture Cris and convince him to use his exceptional gift to prevent the nuclear nightmare from becoming a terrifying reality. Jessica Biel, Peter Falk, and Thomas Kretschmann co-star in the film, which is based on a short story by acclaimed sci-fi author Philip K. Dick. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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