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Dom Robinson reviews
Entertainment in Video
DVD: 
Blu-ray:
- Cert:
- Cat.no: EDV 9492
- Running time: 92 minutes
- Year: 2007
- Pressing: 2007
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (HDCAM SR)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99 (DVD), £24.99 (Blu-Ray)
- Extras: Four featurettes, Four trailers for other films
- Vote and comment on this DVD:
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.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.