Next

MOVIE #1,270 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 12.07.23 Starting in 2020, I decided to watch & review the entire Nicolas Cage filmography in alphabetical order. This is 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 – Chapter 53. While the movie poster for this looks like pure direct-to-video schlock, this actually predates Cage’s fallow DVD into VOD hell period by a number of years. In fact, this had a budget of over $118 million in today's dollars. It basically broke even at the box office though I have no recollection of this ever existing. The Year of Cage is proof of The Simulation, people are saying. Perhaps. It marks Cage’s first and only collaboration with the amazing Julianne Moore. And Jessica Biel is in it too. This is easily Cage’s weirdest hairstyle era, as the movie opens with him sitting nervously in a Las Vegas coffee shop before cutting to him going on stage in a cheap theater doing a hack magic act…

Cut to Cage drinking a martini and smoking on the strip as he does some very bad narration about how he supplements his magic show income by gambling. Is he cheating or can he predict the future? Well, the movie answers this immediately…


This is based on a 1954 Philip K. Dick short story called “The Golden Man” which is apparently about “a post-apocalyptic future where the existence of potentially powerful mutants has become a reality.” In other words, nothing like this sci-fi action flick that is incredibly light on the sci-fi. Do they ever try to explain why Cage has these powers? No, they do not.

So he uses his prognostication skills to break up an armed robbery that's about to get innocent people killed, but the casino security team and cops think that he’s the bad guy. This leads to a car chase with some incredibly goofy CGI and glaring green screens, which will both be recurring motifs…


Cut right to NSA agent Julianne Moore who is somehow aware of Cage's powers because he "rose to the top of their gambling-fraud wishlist" (?) explaining to her boss that this is the guy that will be able find some weapons that 'the Russians' have gotten their hands on…


Cage drives his stolen car back to his pad and plays pool with his roommate/friend/dad (?) Peter Falk. This is literally the only scene Peter Falk is in.

Agent Moore shows up and gives Cage the lowdown, the what's what, and Cage retorts with a quick sob story…


But then we realize that the entire conversation which we just saw didn't happen and was just a long vision, which immediately brings into question the rules of these magic powers, re how far and how long and when/why he can see into his future.

Meanwhile, the head of the casino gets snagged by some terrorists asking about Cage. Then we're back in the opening diner scene where Cage longingly watches Jessica Biel enter. He ‘test runs’ various come-ons with his Cage-o-vision, yet again muddling the specifics and extent of his psychic bullshit…


He does this again when her jealous ex-boyfriend shows up…


God, this dialogue is stupendously bad. I think I love it?

So Cage tricks Jessica Biel into driving him to Flagstaff? Sure. Where is this going? Is Biel just a hottie he wanted or is there something more with her character? I have no doubt that this movie we'll explain things perfectly.

We learn the Russian terrorists somehow know that the NSA is interested in Cage because of his clairvoyance and so they want him dead while Biel and Cage go to a kids birthday party at the Grand Canyon. Cage does a neat magic trick that makes Biel smile…


And we learn the origin of Cage’s stage name…


Of course Frank is for the very Las Vegas “Frankenstein” and not, oh I don't know, Frank Sinatra?

Later that night, Cage tells the following story and I'm starting to think that this dialogue is maybe trolling us…


Yes we are being trolled 100% for sure no doubt about it…


The NSA is now on code red about an imminent nuclear attack in southern California. A few things to consider: who/why is this being planned? And if they have the weapon and are already there, why is taking out Cage a priority for the bad guys? You know the drill: DO. NOT. WORRY. ABOUT. IT. Because I fucking love this dialogue with all my heart…


Agent Moore takes a green screen helicopter through the Grand Canyon as they now have all hands on deck to apprehend Cage. Meanwhile, Cage and Biel bone. 99 problems but a Biel ain't one (sorry).

With the terrorists watching, agent Moore picks up Biel. This is an incredibly stuffy Moore performance but I'm sure the constant green screen work and ADR didn't help matters…


So the agents convince Biel to help them drug Cage so they can pick up his unconscious body (?). She does this but then immediately admits to it and Cage proves his powers are real as terrorist snipers try to get a clear shot on him. We learn that Cage saw Biel far into the future and this is the furthest he's ever seen, hence: she just had to become his gf, naturally. This is both creepy and understandable as Cage is trying to figure out why the hell he has these powers. He also tells her that the agents really want him for a matter of national security which he admits he can't help them with because he can only see events that pertain to him personally. Then he jumps into the Grand Canyon. Wacky action ensues which involves a bunch of stuff rolling down a mountain and ends with him saving Moore's life. It's some of the most ass CGI you'll ever see...


So much fucking green screen even between the special FX! Did Julianne Moore film everything separately?

They snag Cage and bring him in for some Clockwork Orange shit, and now Moore is unambiguously playing the villain despite having just been rescued by this man…


They try to trigger Cage’s power by showing him news footage which leads to him seeing Biel being blown up in a wheelchair on a Los Angeles rooftop. Then Cage easily escapes to go save her and reconnects with Moore (who is totally cool with it once he explains the wheelchair bombing, and is no longer the bad guy). Next, no pun intended, he trial-and-errors some ways to effectively rescue Biel from the terrorists.

Now Cage is effectively in charge of a huge counterterrorism unit even though he was literally their prisoner just moments before. And he directs a daring plan to save Biel’s life. It looks like Moore was able to make it to the shoot this day…


This leads them to a factory laced with bad guys and explosives. And Cage does his future-vision schtick. I thought the finale would involve squashing the nuclear explosion but I guess it's about saving Jessica Biel? Maybe it's a one stone/two birds situation. Anyway, we get Multiplicity-style Cage action…


Ahhhh, so many Cages! I guess he can do that thing over and over again at the same time? Sure. They save Biel first, Matrix-style…


Now it's time to save humanity from the nuke, but, wait, oh no…


Cage made a mistake. Or did he? We rewind back to the post-bone sesh at the Grand Canyon wherein Cage calls Moore after apparently having seen the massive explosion in L.A. There's playing fast and loose with an admittedly screwball sci-fi setup and then there is this. If anything can happen and anything that has happened maybe didn't? Then there are zero stakes. No drama. And this is how the movie ends. Did you notice how the credits roll in reverse?? I did! …


“Here’s the thing about the future. Every time you look at it, it changes. Because you looked at it. And that changes everything else.” -Nicolas Cage, Next (2007)

This is one of the most B-movie level flicks of Nic Cage’s entire career even if its big budget and solid cast suggest otherwise. It's real bad. But it's certainly fun in the way a B-movie can be. I didn't hate it. From the incredulous green screen stuff to the bizarre trollish banter, there's something here. I don't really feel like expounding in detail on that something (it's sort of a “you know it when you see it” type situation) but it's there. It very much reminded me of 2009’s Knowing, which is good/bad in a very similar way.

NEXT up, alphabetically, is a 2023 entry, a rare pure western in the Cage filmography: a new film called The Old Way.

---

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,269 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,271 ⫸

---

Next is a 2007 American science fiction action thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann, Tory Kittles, and Peter Falk. The film's original script was loosely based on the 1954 science fiction short story "The Golden Man" by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of Cris Johnson, a small-time magician based in Las Vegas, who has limited precognition. His ability allows him to see into the very immediate future. His gift not only makes him a target of a highly motivated and heavily armed group of terrorists, but also puts him in the crosshairs of the FBI who want to recruit him to oppose those terrorists instead. It was released on April 27, 2007.