Review of Next (1990) by Isaku O — 10 Apr 2013

You know what's coming...

In a world where things are ordinary, one man is different. Cris Johnson can see into the future, but he can only see 2 minutes into the future, and only when it affects him. A selfish ability if ever I saw one.

Next is a film of success and failure, it seems to spend far too much time killing time then doing anything of actual merit or distinction. I mean I LOVE the premise, I think it's clever, it's unique and it's awesome so why do I feel like the film is so mundane?

If you are given a nugget of gold like the premise of Next then you need to do something special with it, Paycheque was like that, so was Minority Report, they were both given a nugget and pushed it around in ways that were fun, interesting and just a little bit inventive, but somehow Next misses the mark. Next's failures are probably all down to the one central conceit of the movie, the women.

The female lead of the film is important because with her Cris can see further than 2 minutes, much, much further. That sounds like a fine outlay but it's in it's execution that the film starts to stumble, for much of the movie we see Cris on the run without any real sort of target or aim in life apart from to be with this girl.

Also, if you are going to do the "repeated sequence" thing you can't have someone who is smug, and of all the things Nicolas Cage is one of them is most defiantly smug. It's like he knows the future and knows you don't, for most of the film he comes across as far too self-righteous, especially when compared to the man who most resembles this situation "Phil Connors".

Don't get me wrong, Next is a fine little movie, it has some impressive sequences and acceptable plot and even a nice ending, but what it doesn't have is anything as amazing as the films outlining premise, it's as if the entire movie dies off the one idea and is content to stay there.

Another problem that Next suffers with, is that most of if not all of its best moments are already shown in the trailer, so much like Cris himself I knew what was coming next, that doesn't make them any less cool when the seconds actually arrive but it does mean the film loses much of it's WOW factor.

You know what I truly would have preferred to see as appose to the plot they went with for Next? I would have loved to have seen what Cris actually did for however long he was waiting for the girl to show up, imagine being able to see into the next 2 minute's but having the constraint to have to be in one dinner at an exact time every day. What the hell would you do with your time? Now that's a movie.

Next also suffers with the "we are generic foreigner so must be bad guys" vault, the villains could only be more token if they have moustaches they twiddled, and said the line "HEY! I'm not from round here!".

Let's forget about Cage for a moment and move onto the other cast members mostly Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel and Peter Falk. While Moore tries her best to do something with her role the dedication is just not there and while Jessica Biel is great to look at, she doesn't bring anything to the movie but eye candy. Finally, it's a shame that this should be Peter Falk's last role.

Next is a great idea gone bad, it's not the worst film ever made, but it just could have so easily been so much more. Disappointing.