Reviewing the Movie Next

Nicholas Cage is somewhat of a Hollywood enigma. Critics and audiences alike either respond positively to his work or they tend to hate it. There seems to be little room in between. I happen to be a Cage fan. I believe he is highly under rated as an actor, but there aren't as many people in my camp is there are on the other side.

Cage's latest film - - "Next" - - may just manage to earn him a little more respect. It's a good film with one of the most inventive endings I've seen in quite a while.

In the film, Cage plays a two-bit Vegas magician named Cris Johnson. His act is less than dazzling, which forces most to believe he is nothing but a fake. But is he a fake or is he just hiding in plain sight?

In truth, Johnson has a secret; one that he wishes he could discard. Unfortunately, he cannot. The secret is that he can see about two minutes into the future; not just any future, however. He can only see the future as it pertains directly to him.

Since his magic act doesn't make much money for him, he also does a bit of small-time gambling. Although he attempts to fly under the radar by keeping his bets low and moving from casino to casino, he manages to catch the attention of one of the casino's security managers. Just as he attempts to make his getaway, however, an event occurs that ultimately changes everything.

Government agent, Callie Ferris (played by the beautiful Julianne Moore) has somehow caught onto Johnson's abilities and she intends to use them to help her find a stolen nuclear bomb that a terrorist group claims will detonate somewhere around Los Angeles. She doesn't understand that Johnson's abilities are limited to "his" immediate future and, for reasons left unexplained, the psychic doesn't matter to fill her in.

A sudden change in Johnson's abilities, encourage him to side step the agent. He feels it important that he find a young woman that he has begun seeing in his visions. All he knows about her is that the two of them will meet in a nearby diner.