Extras:
Four featurettes, Four trailers for other films
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Director:
Lee Tamahori
(Along Came a Spider, Die Another Day, The Edge, Mulholland Falls, Next, Once Were Warriors, xXx: State of the Union)
Producers:
Nicolas Cage, Todd Garner, Norm Golightly and Arne L. Schmidt
Screenplay:
Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh and Paul Bernbaum
(from a short story by Philip K Dick)
Cast:
Cris Johnson: Nicolas Cage
Callie Ferris: Julianne Moore
Liz Cooper: Jessica Biel
Mr Smith: Thomas Kretschmann
Cavanaugh: Tory Kittles
Security Chief Roybal: José Zúñiga
Irv: Peter Falk
No, Next, isn't a tribute to the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, but an action movie starring Nicolas Cage.
It's also a scripted by Gary Goldman from a short story by Philip K Dick called "The Golden Man", and Goldman was also responsible
for doing the same for both Total Recall and Minority Report.
Cage (right) plays a man who can see two minutes into the future, which is a handy talent to have, and as we join him, he's on stage
in Las Vegas as Frank Cadillac, a man who knows what everyone's about to say before they say it as long as he asks them the
question first. Okay, we know he can do that, but what's telling is that there's not exactly a large crowd out there, so
it's definitely chicken-in-a-basket-style entertainment on view.
After winning some cash on the poker tables and fruit machines in the nearby casino, he thinks he's not been spotted
because he doesn't play high stakes, but this only attracts the attention of the security guards further. An incident and
a rather clever escape later, and it turns out that far from being the 'enfant terrible' of the community, given that
we learn the Russians have a ten kiloton nuclear device unaccounted for, who do they think could be relied to somehow
help them get it back? FBI bod Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore, below-right) knows the answer, even if her boss is being a bit thick
about it.
Meanwhile, there's a girl he keeps seeing in his head, played by Jessica Biel (above right, with Cage), and he can't get her out. He won't
rest until he meets her, and the difference there is that she was much further into the future than two minutes. But what
is the significance of that?
Nicolas Cage has proved himself as being good in an action role, even though he basically plays the same character in each
one. Julianne Moore is fine as an FBI woman, but I find she rarely excels beyond average in most things I've seen her in and
the same can be said here. Jessica Biel is fine as the totty, but that's all she has to do as well. In this film, it's the
CGI that does the talking to great effect, along with some gorgeous locations in the Grand Canyon and brilliant action
set-pieces. Oh, there's also a cameo from Peter Falk but that's it.
A great part of the film comes when something appears to happen that makes it look like Cris has been caught out, but
in reality this is the 2-minute-ahead vision he's just had, so he has time to avoid it. If you think about what it must
be like to live like that, it'd drive you potty! And in one of these scenes, he had put down his pool cue long ago, so how
come when he makes his exit, he's suddenly holding it again? It was far longer than two minutes!
Overall, Next is total nonsense from start to finish but an excellent way of spending 90 minutes for this
over-the-top piece of engaging nonsense that would be great fun for all the family.
By the way, why is he "Cris" and not "Chris" - is it because the actor is "Nicolas" and not "Nicholas"?
There's not a single glitch to be found on the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image, which will not lend
itself to being cropped to 16:9 for eventual TV broadcast (so let's hope Channel 4 get to show it, in their
current climate of broadcasting such films properly). The public are used to such an image now and won't
complain about "black bars", given the abundance of DVDs in the same ratio as well as the same effect
being applied to many music promos.
Soundwise, there's just Dolby Digital 5.1 here even though a DTS soundtrack was created for the film.
That said, it still has several action scenes that will blow you away and your neighbours will get suitably
annoyed with the volume turned up high for the many explosions and gunshots throughout.
The extras below are all presented in 16:9 anamorphic with all film clips in 2.35:1 anamorphic. They're not extensive,
but okay:
Making the Next Best Thing (17:28):
Key cast and crew members talk about the morals of the lead character and the actors featured and how they played their
characters. Generally, a nice and concise 'FAQ' about everything. It would be nice for such a long featurette to be chaptered,
though.
Visualising the Next Best Thing (7:25):
A featurette about the outstanding CGI in the movie. There are plenty of spoilers here, so don't watch it until you've seen
the film (same goes for the other extras).
The Next Grand Idea (6:33):
Showing how and why the, relatively brief, romantic segment was filmed in the Grand Canyon. The on-set footage is shot in 4:3
but what would be the left/right black bars onscreen are just blurred copies of the edges of the 4:3 image.
Two Minutes in the Future with Jessica Biel (2:19):
The actress ponders on whether she'd like to have Cris' ability. This segment does last two minutes prior to its end credits,
in case you were wondering.
Future Releases (6:53):
No trailer for Next itself, sadly, but there are trailers for Fracture (running 2:08 and in 2.35:1 anamorphic),
Goya's Ghosts (2:25, 16:9 letterbox), Hairspray (2:14, 2.35:1 letterbox) and Rush Hour 3
(2:11, 2.35:1 anamorphic).
The DVD menu has some brief motion and audio in keeping with film's opening titles, there are only 12 chapters which
is rather sparse and certainly not enough for a film of around 90 minutes in length. subtitles are in English only.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
DVD: 
No, Next, isn't a tribute to the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, but an action movie starring Nicolas Cage.
Meanwhile, there's a girl he keeps seeing in his head, played by Jessica Biel (above right, with Cage), and he can't get her out. He won't
rest until he meets her, and the difference there is that she was much further into the future than two minutes. But what
is the significance of that?
