When faced with the tricky task of adapting Philip K. Dick's futuristic short story, The Golden Man, about a golden-skinned mutant who can see his own future, it seems that star/producer Nicolas Cage and director Lee Tamahori hit upon a simple solution, and... didn't bother. Indeed, Next takes only Dick's central conceit and turns it into a standard big-budget actioner, in which Cage runs around a lot, dodging Russian nasties and Julianne Moore's inappropriately intense FBI agent.
It's all complete nonsense, of course, hampered by a clunky script and Tamahori's uneven direction (which elicits unintentional laughter throughout and, unforgivably, a dull performance from Nic Cage). There are several nice set-pieces, though, which play with the possibilities of Cris' gift, including a meet cute with Biel's young-enough-to-be-his-daughter love interest. Even so, amazingly we can also see into the future; and we see you, dear readers, avoiding this and catching it on DVD down the line.
