Next refers to the ability that Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage of World Trade Center) has to see the future. He’s a small time magician in Las Vegas who dreams of a better life when the right woman comes into his space and accepts him. 

Casino security watches Cris at the gaming tables through their ceiling cameras, trying to figure out how he is so lucky. He does not count cards and the casino bosses are confounded about how he makes out so well. Cris’s skill is that he can see the future within a three-minute window. Early in the film there are some clever scenes that showcase how he uses his powers to turn what would have been bad situations into good ones. 

The one person he has a longer vision on is a woman he has yet to meet. He knows where and at what time he’ll first see her, however, and he plants himself there. She turns out to be Liz (Jessica Biel of Stealth), a college instructor. They take off together and end up in a roadside hotel.  

Cris’s psychic sense leads both FBI agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio) and a terrorist organization to desperately want to capture Liz, and use her as bait to lure Cris. Ferris to prevent a nuclear bomb explosion in LA, and the terrorists to be sure it happens (think Jack Bauer and TV’s 24). The film has some of the feel of Denzel Washington’s Déjà Vu, but the story and events are more interesting because it comes across as more probable.  

Cage is just eccentric enough to be interesting; Moore is more or less a stock FBI agent with the intelligence and intensity we’d like to think they all have; and Biel is an attractive and strong woman, who at some point needs to be saved by Cage.

The hardest part about wrapping your mind around a movie like this is just trying to keep up with the logic of being illogical in a complex story. This film is based upon a short story by Philip K. Dick, who also gave us the mind bending Minority Report. 

Next is directed by Lee Tamahori, who also directed one of our favorite films (and his first feature), Once Were Warriors, a fiercely provocative story about Maori culture.   

We don’t knock Cage for making sci-fi, action movies that the studios think so little of (Ghost Rider) that they are not presented for press previews. They’re still fun and fairly well done. Good acting does make a difference with mediocre material. While the set up for Next played out better than the ending, the movie was reasonably good and quite entertaining.