I normally make fun of Nick Cage because I don't think he is a good actor. He is sometimes, but mostly my disdain for him comes from the fact that he seems to take every project that comes his way. His most notable failures in my opinion are the Ghost Rider films and The Wicker Man - a remake that was just awful and an unnecessary middle finger to the epic original film.
Anyway, this movie Next is a film that barely broke even and I feel as though it should have done better. This is because it is an inventive story idea that is "kind of" a super-powers movie, but a more realistic one.
The story in this film is that Cris Johnson (Cage) is a Vegas magician but actually does have a super-power that isn't just a trick. He can see into the future but only into his own future and only 2 minutes into that. This has some obvious benefits such as winning in casinos, which he does sparingly to avoid attracting too much attention to himself.
*credit to MovieClips for the vid*I like this movie because it seems like a far more interesting super-power than say, being able to fly. In the correct hands it actually could go unnoticed as most people would just presume that it was a trick. I like to imagine what I would do if I also had these powers. Would I be able to restrain myself the way that he does? I don't think so.
I believe that his movie is one of Cage's better films and while it did make a few million at the box office the budget for this movie was so bloated ($70 million) that the studio saw very little, if any, profit.
If you are like me and mostly don't pay Cage films much mind this is one you should look at anyway. I believe you will be entertained and walk away from it thinking about like I did. It isn't perfect but in this situation I cant really imagine anyone other than Cage playing the role, which is odd.
