"Next"

The first thing I have to say about this movie, is bravo to director Lee Tamahori for bringing to life a different idea for a change. While there have been a hundred movies about time travel, or precognition, this particular rendition is unique, and very refreshing.

Nicholas Cage now has a very large body of work in his ever growing resume' of movies, and unfortunately, they have been a mixed bag of nuts at best. I would say that only about 60% of the movies he is in are truly worth watching, but that 60% are very good movies spanning serious roles, comedic, bad guy, good guy, weird guy, ghost, and everything else in-between!

Nicholas is one of those actors that some how just him acting the same way, or just being himself in each movie just works. There are very few actors that can get away with this, and end up with the long careers that Nicholas has had. He has this way about him that is unique, and can just be used over and over and never seems to get old.

"Next" is a fun, and fast paced movie about a night club magician in Las Vegas who has an unusual act of guessing "What will happen next." The only difference with Nicholas's character, Chris Johnson, a.k.a Frank Cadillac, is that his act, is NOT an act. He actually has a real gift. Chris can see into the future a very short amount of time, but enough to where he can effect what happens to him, and his surroundings.

The trouble all starts when an F.B.I. agent Callie Ferris (played by Julianne Moore) finds out about Chris's ability, and talks her superiors into letting her acquire his aid (whether he likes it or not) in trying to thwart a terrorist bomb attack on U.S. soil.

Chris is able to escape the F.B.I.'s attempts to capture him several times with his love interest Liz Cooper (played by Jessica Biel) in tow by simply looking into the future in just enough time to see what their plans are, and precisely at the right moment slip through their fingers.

Eventually the F.B.I. does catch up with him, but not before pulling an amazing split second rescue of the main F.B.I. agent Callie. There is no real way to describe in words how Chris pulls these stunts off, but the people in charge of the C.G.I. do a fantastic job. One particular scene that is really mind bending, is towards the end of the movie when Chris, Liz, Callie, and a team of F.B.I. agents are stumbling through a warehouse trying to locate this bomb planted by the terrorist group, and the camera shows Chris splitting himself up in the future a hundred different ways searching through the warehouse trying to avoid booby trap type bombs set to blow up if someone walks past them.

This is about as far as I can take you with regards to the plot without playing the spoiler, so I will end on this note. Director Lee Tamahori, does manage to pull off a very good over all "look" and "feel" to the movie, and when all is said and done, the movie was very entertaining. I think if they were to kick things up a notch, they could easily pull off a sequel that would overshadow the first.

My rating for this movie is 7.50 out of 10.00