I feel a little strange reviewing this movie in a section about movies based on Philip K. Dick stories. That might seem odd considering even at the top of this very here page is mention of Next being based upon one of his stories (though long-time readers would know by now that pretty much anything and everything about me and my writing is "strange" and/or "odd" and thus are just going with it no matter what). And I suppose that is true... from a certain point of view (oooh, I feel all Obi-Wan-ish!). But in reality, this movie is nothing like the story. Not even a little. If you weren't told that Next was "based upon" the story "The Golden Man"... you wouldn't know, as the one thing they both supposedly have in common, that the main character can see the future, is still wildly different enough between story and movie that it makes me wonder if the movie is not, in fact, based on the story, but they claim it was solely in an attempt to drum up more interest (Ah, conspiracy theories... where would life be without them?!).

But ignoring that for the rest of this review, on to the movie! Next is about a cheap stage magician in Vegas, Cris Johnson (Nic Cage) who has a leg up on most stage magicians, in that he can see into the future by two minutes. He end up being pursued by FBI agents led by Agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) who somehow discover what he can do and want to exploit his ability to help find a stolen nuke in Los Angeles. Also involved in the story is Liz (Jessica Biel), whom Cris has a future vision of further ahead than two minutes which piques his interest (that, and, well, it's Jessica Biel). Oh, and generic French-speaking terrorists are around, but pretty much just as plot devices. Various chases, hijinks, and fun-with-time-travel-sort-of ensue.

I must say that this movie is very easy to mock, and not just because it's appears to be yet another in the "Looks like Nic Cage has yet another winner on his hands (sarcasm, sarcasm, sarcasm)" line of movies, but really, it's not that bad. The concept has definite potential, and they have some fun with it during the movie. Near the beginning is a sequence where Cris has to escape out of a casino, and the choreography of all the motion is quite well done and a good showcase of how he uses his clairvoyance. There are also various times throughout where it seems like we are proceeding as per a normal movie until it turns out that a certain scene was something that Cris was envisioning in his mind, and the movie resets itself back a few scenes before. It does make Next a little intriguing.

...but not perfect, by any means. I feel that there is a huge plot hole with the entire thing -- why would FBI Agent Ferris spend so much time and effort to chase Cris down? She figures out pretty quickly that he can only see two minutes into the future. That's really not that much time, so how can he really help with finding the stolen nuke? Even if he somehow envisions where it is, it'd only give the FBI a two minute head start in finding it. It gets worse when she finally gets him into custody, for she has him start watching national news channels, with the thinking that once a nuke goes off, all the news channels would give details of when/where. But again, we're talking two minutes. Alas. The movie does actually attempt to have an answer for this quandary, which is something at least, but not to this reviewer's satisfaction. And considering the FBI manpower she pulls together to help chase Cris, it seems as if all those people would be much used if going after, I dunno, the nuke?

There are other plot holes to be found, not to mention the disbelief in Nic Cage and Jessica Biel making an item, but these are all fairly minor issues compared to that.

Ignoring all of the above, though...it's not that bad of a movie. There are worse ways to spend a few hours, and there are enough good ideas and concepts to keep it interesting. It just feels like there is a better movie hidden inside somewhere. That's probably what happens when someone tries to take the general idea from a Philip K. Dick story and ignores the rest. He knew what he was doing.

   -- K. Burtt