Review: Next
This movie snuck up quite quietly, and even had my small country listed as the sole world premiere venue for a while. That can’t be a good sign ? Previous cases have proven direct-to-video-or-DVD stuff. But it had prominent names headlining it (Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel), so it’s all been straightened out the last minute (tiny European and US day-to-date opening), but I could shake off that bad gut feeling.
With a typical action director (Lee Tamahori, xXx and Die Another Day) helming a movie, you can always hope for a really special break-out hit (like Michael Bay’s The Rock from 1996), but my gut-feeling proved to be quite correct. Where Lee could have shine (inventive action sequences), he let us down by using third-grade CGI special effects (trees, anyone ?).
Furthermore. the story has more holes in it than our most famous cheeses, and there’s no real humor or characters to liven things up. Acting is just about acceptable for the main actors, but all the others have B-movie potential, with the bad guys no better than direct-to-Betamax quality.
Then the ending, which is an attempt to make it look like it’s smart, is more of a slap in the face.
All in all, it’s not boring per se, it’s just that hopes were set too high, despite that gut feeling warning me beforehand.6-.