Next

Because a cheap Las Vegas magician (Nicolas Cage) can see two minutes into the future, an FBI agent (Julianne Moore) thinks he can help avert a nuclear attack by terrorists—and so do the terrorists themselves. The script (by Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh, and Paul Bernbaum, from a Philip K. Dick story) ignores all the obvious questions it raises—for example, how did the feds and the bad guys find out about the magician in the first place?—and the movie is unbelievably sloppy (note to writers and director Lee Tamahori: You can’t go to Folsom Prison for crimes committed in Nevada, and if you must talk about a character’s throat being cut, spring for a little stage blood when you show the body). The ending is a shameless, groan-inducing set-up for the sequel; What Next? would be the perfect title.