feel like I have seen this already with Ben Affleck's Paycheck; hopefully the idea will still seem fresh.

A decent action film that certainly goes by fairly quickly, but suffers from an underdeveloped script that is full of genre cliches. Also, Nicolas Cage really needs to stop doing action movies - because he is an absolutely awful actor in them. This role is no exception. Cage delivers a bland, uninspired performance that (while a step up from Ghost Rider) doesn't feel authentic in the slightest. He should just do dramas, for that is where he shines. Thankfully Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel are much better and do well with the material they were given. The ending kind of annoyed me as well. But nonetheless, this is a fun popcorn flick and a good precursor to the big-budget action films that lie ahead during this summer season.

B

It had potential to be a really solid popcorn flick, but I actually felt a little.. bored.

C+

Entertaining action film with a fun perf by Cage that makes it better than it would have been otherwise.

B+

I found it highly entertaining and I loved Nicolas Cage's performance. He is among my favorite actors. B+.

Nowhere near as bad as I thought it ws going to be. That saying, I'm pretty much in sync with Berardinelli on this one. The first 25 minutes are actually really good. Really good. The stuff at the casino is well done. And Peter Falk is even in it! I also enjoyed the stuff at the diner when he first meets Jessica Biel's character. After that, the film goes downhill somewhat into a very odd action thriller. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but why did the terrorists want to blow up LA? Because they could? This leads me into my next point. The film is 90 minutes without credits. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the movie is too short. The entire thing felt like a paint by numbers kind of deal. For instance it would've been nice if the terrorists weren't cliched terrorists. We've seen these guys before. Because of that, the film is kind of boring. Maybe a director's cut will make it a little bit better?

And then there is the ending. What's the hell? How did the terrorists get the bomb so far away from everything? When did they do this? How could Johnson have missed that? That then renders the scene at the warehouse to be completely pointless then right? Which then renders that entire "dream sequence" pointless. And yes, the very end robs the film and the audience of one final action sequence. After all of that, since Johnson now knows everything, couldn't the action sequence have been like 15 minutes of something with one final standoff? In the words of one of the patrons I was sitting near, "WHAT THE FUCK!?!?" There is no ending and it's not like it's even setting up a sequel. It just ends.

Ignore this though. If you overthink the film too much, the film isn't going to be a lot of fun, and I think this is the kind of film that wants you to shut your brain off as soon as you walk in the door. If you do, you might have some cheesy fun.

C+

Now this is one seriously under-rated movie. It takes a steady hand to direct this kind of ri-Dick-ulousness. Lee Tamahori, who directed the best modern Bond film, does a fine job of spinning this simple time travel concept (seeing 2 minutes into the future) into a glorious tapestry of action and suspense. The screenplay by Gary Goldman was super sharp and avoided inconsistencies like a non-swimming ballet dancer on lilypads. It's really hard to create a quality time travel story like this, so --voila!-- a new film has joined the elite pantheon of classic time travel movies. All three leads were awesome in their roles - Cage & Moore, natch - but Jessica Biel held her own easily with these veterans (though I've also thought she was underappreciated in The Illusionist, Elizabethtown, Stealth, & Cellular in the past couple of years).

Yup, this one's a keeper!

8 out of 5.

Yow! Who's this Patrick Reilly doing reviews on the WOKJ main site? He's so far off base on Next, he's not even playing ball.

Perhaps he's aiming to be WOKJ's own Scott Holleran?! At least that'd generate a bit 'o the old controversy for the site...

That would be me Bradley, that Scott Hollaren jibe is low but I still love you ya Freddy Got Fingered loving lunatic.

My actual first name is Padraig btw.

"I've seen all of the endings here. And none of them are good for you."

That's an understatement, Nic.

I can appreciate what Next is going for, even after the no-ending ending. But I don't appreciate films that toy with the audience's mind, just for a few "What The Fuck?" moments. I knew after the third or fourth time that they showed something happen, only to go back a minute so he can re-do it, the film was going to be shit.

Now, I will give the film props for what it accomplishes, when you can stop over-thinking it. Once you ask yourself "how can he think out all these possibilities in only a short time?", you'll hate the movie. Once you ask yourself "how can the movie continuously pull the chair out before I can sit down?", you'll hate the movie. Once you ask yourself "how can Jessica Biel possibly be in love with Nicolas Cage?", you'll hate the movie. And Nicolas Cage.

A brainless action film, with a solid opening 20-25 minutes, that ultimately fails in almost every possibly way. If someone could re-shoot the first 20 minutes as a part of a TV pilot, and make a series out of the idea without ruining it, I'd be forever grateful. As for the film, I'll give it a C+.

.....

Wait... bad idea. My future tells me that giving the film a C+ can only bring a bad outcome. Maybe I'll give it a C-, instead.

Ah, much better.

Well I didn't see that coming, but I'm totally with bradley on this one. Blame it on low expectations but I thought Next was a very clever little action movie. It does go a bit downhill into repetive action land after the very, very cool downhill chase, but before that it's a very nifty thriller. Nothing to pick apart mind you - everything about the terrorists is head scratchingly murky - but certainly a cut above many of the oh-so-serious, self-righteous, shoot-em-ups that have been invading theaters.

By the way, at some point through this movie I realized just how completely right bradley and andaroo have been about the silly notion of assigning films letter grades, and they should be happy to know I will no longer do so unless asked. Here's to a summer filled with plenty of 5+ out of 5s!

Yeah, I've watched this a few time, and its a fun action film that while it gets by the numbers and some cheesy CGI in the end, I liked the gimmick a lot and Nic is probably his best in a mainstream film since the original National Treasure. Underrated and becuase its brisk has pretty good rewatchability.

Solid B

C-


Wow, I am truly surprised reading some of the reviews here. I never realized that it has been rather well-received here at KJ. Now I watched this with absolutely no expectations and it still managed to underwhelm me. Now I am usually kind of biased when it comes to Nic Cage's films simply because I really like him, even in bad movies. But this one was a total misfire. The concept is actually pretty interesting, but its execution and the development of the initial ideas is just horrendous.

Now I realize that Cage's character can see a few minutes into the future. But how exactly does having seen the whole mayhem when running down the hill in the middle of the film help you to avoid the crashing cars and the debris and all. Only because you have seen it before (for a few seconds), it doesn't mean that you always know exactly which movement to make or in which angle to turn. That's flat out ridiculous.

Cage himself is not as much fun as he usually is. He seems to be just doing this for a paycheck. Julianne Moore is even more sorely wasted here and Jessica Biel is nothing more than eye candy. Her romance with Cage doesn't feel genuine for a second (doesn't help that they have absolutely no chemistry together).

Now there are a few funny scenes (like when he imagines how he would talk to Biel's character and how that would turn out for him. The casino chase after him is fun too. Towards the end, however, it regresses into an incomprehensible and frankly rather boring mess. I'd give it kudos for the ballsy ending....but ah, wait! They actually chickened out, made the whole thing seem just like another vision and are setting up a happy ending. Well, screw that!

Also, I read that the film's budget was at $70 million...what the hell? It looked about ten times cheaper than that, especially all the visual effects at the ending. Was Cage's hairpiece really that pricey?!

Simply one of the worst films I've seen.