Next (2007)

Next is ten years old, and while Julianne Moore hasn’t aged a day, somehow this movie feels older than just a decade.

This is Cage with his mid 00s hair - think Knowing (this wasn't a new watch this year, but I'll get to reviewing it one day), think National Treasure. Cage as a Vegas magician is, I must say, the perfect match made in casting heaven. It’s deranged-terrorist-for-hire level perfection. He can see roughly two minutes into the future, somehow without taking up any time in the present, and is on the run from the government trying to track down a nuclear bomb AND a terrorist organisation, all while seducing Jessica Biel. Can he do it? He's goddamn Nicolas Cage. You're watching a movie where he's a psychic magician. Of course he can.

While it’s a wild ride, there is some genuine trash going on in this movie. Two minute future vision gets used in excess to play mindgames and essentially trick his love interest into his arms. I think we’re supposed to be into it based on Cage’s charisma (?) and chemistry with Biel’s character (??????), but neither of those stick and it is intensely creepy. There’s also a few major fakeouts that felt like the writers abandoning all hope and not knowing what to do, and it frustrated me to no end. So I would say it’s possible to have a good amount of fun with Next, but I would be perpetually wary.

To the point of having fun with it: There is a scene where Nicolas Cage projects into approximately fifty Nicolas Cages and it had me damn near clapping my hands with glee. 

Rating: 3/10 - The stuff that was supposed to be romantic was super gross and it really soured me on the movie, but it’s pretty standard Nicolas Cage filmography fare. It’s not an essential - I’m not desperate for you to watch it like I am for everyone ever to watch Vampire’s Kiss - but it’s definitely something.