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"Next" - Film review
Jul. 11th, 2008 12:01 amTesco DVD Rental, in their wisdom, sent me this dire Nicolas Cage film a few days back. Now, I really enjoy films that play around with time, perception and whatnot - but this is just atrocious.
For a start, it commits the cardinal sin that sank Studio 60; it says one thing and shows another. On Studio 60, Matt Perry's character was supposed to be a genius writer, funnier than anyone in the business - but every sketch they every showed was as exciting as sawdust. It's the same here; Cage's greasy-haired card-guesser is described as charming and all sorts of things - but throughout the film he comes off as a whiny, self-obsessed nutjob. Pairing him up with Jessica Biel - of whom I should apparently have heard - is also particularly idiotic and unbelievable. There's the "old enough to be his daughter" thing, of course, that everyone's mentioned, but worse than that is the fact that there's absolutely no chemistry between them at all.
There's one light at the end of this film's tunnel; Julianne Moore. She hasn't got much to work with, but she's at least the only character in the film who's neither unlikeable nor particularly stupid. Certainly she'd have made a more plausible love interest for Cage's character, with the added benefit of keeping the plot a bit more focussed. After all, what did Biel's character have to do with anything? Sod all, that's what.
Anyway, the plot... bloke sees two minutes into the future, FBI thinks two minutes is enough to get a NEST team on-site to stop a NuDet, stuff happens, weak ending ensues. It really is a dire film.
As for technical things... the CGI is overused and poorly executed (the landslide scene in particular is abysmal), a woman is described as having had her throat cut while there's not a scratch on her, Moore's body armour has no plates in it, the whole detonation issue is ludicrous.
Oh, and the characters do things for no other reason than that the plot wants them to, which just makes me lose interest.
It did have its good sides, though. A few of the time-scanning fights were fun (okay, one of them; the one in the diner), and Julianne Moore with a gun and a CIRAS (or whatever it was) is a Good Thing. But that's about it.
Oh, and it's short. Which is also good.
For a start, it commits the cardinal sin that sank Studio 60; it says one thing and shows another. On Studio 60, Matt Perry's character was supposed to be a genius writer, funnier than anyone in the business - but every sketch they every showed was as exciting as sawdust. It's the same here; Cage's greasy-haired card-guesser is described as charming and all sorts of things - but throughout the film he comes off as a whiny, self-obsessed nutjob. Pairing him up with Jessica Biel - of whom I should apparently have heard - is also particularly idiotic and unbelievable. There's the "old enough to be his daughter" thing, of course, that everyone's mentioned, but worse than that is the fact that there's absolutely no chemistry between them at all.
There's one light at the end of this film's tunnel; Julianne Moore. She hasn't got much to work with, but she's at least the only character in the film who's neither unlikeable nor particularly stupid. Certainly she'd have made a more plausible love interest for Cage's character, with the added benefit of keeping the plot a bit more focussed. After all, what did Biel's character have to do with anything? Sod all, that's what.
Anyway, the plot... bloke sees two minutes into the future, FBI thinks two minutes is enough to get a NEST team on-site to stop a NuDet, stuff happens, weak ending ensues. It really is a dire film.
As for technical things... the CGI is overused and poorly executed (the landslide scene in particular is abysmal), a woman is described as having had her throat cut while there's not a scratch on her, Moore's body armour has no plates in it, the whole detonation issue is ludicrous.
Oh, and the characters do things for no other reason than that the plot wants them to, which just makes me lose interest.
It did have its good sides, though. A few of the time-scanning fights were fun (okay, one of them; the one in the diner), and Julianne Moore with a gun and a CIRAS (or whatever it was) is a Good Thing. But that's about it.
Oh, and it's short. Which is also good.
