Lee Tamahori gave us one of the best movies last year (2011). It was called Devil’s Double. And it wasn’t a great movie just because of a great performance from Dominic Cooper. Mind you, Tamahori has given us equally good movies such as Die Another Day – now purists may argue that it’s a Bond movie and doesn’t take much – yadda yadda yadda I say… duh. It was a well made Bond movie. And then there was this serial killer movie called Along came a Spider starring Morgan Freeman. So pray tell me what is he doing with my favourite (notice the sarcasm) actor and an equally constipated feminine version of him called Julianne Moore. The saving grace in the star cast is the stunning (notice the drool) Jessica Biel. There is actually no one else who seems to have a role in this excuse of a science fiction action thriller of sorts which doesn’t quite do justice to Tamahori’s direction skills. To put it in a different way, it probably was Tamahori’s most challenging assignment to date. It is so not the kind of movie that he is cut out to direct. Consequently – he failed oh so badly at it.
The funda is that the protagonist – Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) can see about 3 minutes into the future. A gift that can have a lot of advantages. I could fill the next 10 pages about what I would do with something like this. Cris does use it to his advantage for certain by doing simple magic tricks at a local circus of sorts. But he finds out soon enough that, hot on his heels, are the FBI or secret service or whatever you want to call it led by a lady, Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) who believes that Cris is the solution to all problems including the one that involves finding a nuclear war head that has been stolen by some really bad men. In between all of this, Cris bumps into the love of his life Liz (Jessica Biel – the only tolerable part of this otherwise quite sad movie) and suddenly he can see like 60 times more into the future – for those who do not know math we mean 3 hours into the future. If you like the story so far then please go ahead and watch Next.
Personally I thought the story was average at best. Most of you know that I have no love lost for Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew who I believe is one of the most over rated actors of our time who somehow manages to get some great movies down his path. He typically makes the most of it but this time around his constipation gets the better of him. There is not too much really to look forward to in the movie but it is just that it is finished well enough for me to still give it a 5 on 10. I would give it lesser because honestly, my sleep did get the better of me a couple of times during the movie but then there are many Nicholas Cage fans… oops sorry to add the “h” which doesn’t seem to have made any difference to the performance. Watch at your own risk.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1083769113/
The funda is that the protagonist – Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) can see about 3 minutes into the future. A gift that can have a lot of advantages. I could fill the next 10 pages about what I would do with something like this. Cris does use it to his advantage for certain by doing simple magic tricks at a local circus of sorts. But he finds out soon enough that, hot on his heels, are the FBI or secret service or whatever you want to call it led by a lady, Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) who believes that Cris is the solution to all problems including the one that involves finding a nuclear war head that has been stolen by some really bad men. In between all of this, Cris bumps into the love of his life Liz (Jessica Biel – the only tolerable part of this otherwise quite sad movie) and suddenly he can see like 60 times more into the future – for those who do not know math we mean 3 hours into the future. If you like the story so far then please go ahead and watch Next.
Personally I thought the story was average at best. Most of you know that I have no love lost for Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew who I believe is one of the most over rated actors of our time who somehow manages to get some great movies down his path. He typically makes the most of it but this time around his constipation gets the better of him. There is not too much really to look forward to in the movie but it is just that it is finished well enough for me to still give it a 5 on 10. I would give it lesser because honestly, my sleep did get the better of me a couple of times during the movie but then there are many Nicholas Cage fans… oops sorry to add the “h” which doesn’t seem to have made any difference to the performance. Watch at your own risk.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1083769113/
