This is a bit of a gem as far as I'm concerned. I never heard about it till I traweled my favourite DVD store online and found it there. I had to go into town to pick up another DVD I had ordered so instead of getting Next online I picked it up with the other one I had collected. More of that one later.
Next is the story of a man played by Nicolas Cage (a very underrated actor IMHO) called Cris Johnson. He is a performer in Las Vegas with a minor stage act as a kind of mentalist. He can predict things in the future. The gag with this, however is that what he can do isn't a stage act. He has the ability to see 2 minutes into the future, or thereabouts. But he keeps the talent kind of low key so that he for the most part stays under the radar with people. But on the night the movie starts he is playing at a casino and winning at cards.
This action makes the security people upstairs who are watching him suspicious. They think he is cheating in some way and want to grab him for some questioning. But because he is now aware of them he rather deftly evades capture by stealing a car in an elaborate cat and mouse game of evasion.
The movie then switches to the office of one Callie Ferris played by the lovely Julianne Moore who is an FBI agent also tipped off about Nic Cage's character. She's been watching his show and is also suspicious. But suspicious in that his abilities must be somehow real. She tries to recruit him to helping her find some terrorists of European origin who have brought a nuclear weapon into the city of LA and plan to blow that up. Cris for his part doesn't want any part of this because as a child he underwent examination after examination about his gift and thus wishes to keep his low profile life.
He has regular habits. He always visits this coffee shop at the same time every day because he has seen a vision of a girl that will come there. True enough that girl does come and is played by the lovely Jessica Biel. He wants to get out of the area so after some drama with her and a mad suitor of hers he gains her sympathy, after the suitor decks him..
Thus they embark on our adventure and we have both the FBI and now the terrorists after this guy. I won't say any more because the movie picks up from the point after they leave the coffee shop and things start moving at a good pace. The ending left me gasping because I thought I was watching one set of events, but it all tied together very well as far as I'm concerned.
Next is the story of a man played by Nicolas Cage (a very underrated actor IMHO) called Cris Johnson. He is a performer in Las Vegas with a minor stage act as a kind of mentalist. He can predict things in the future. The gag with this, however is that what he can do isn't a stage act. He has the ability to see 2 minutes into the future, or thereabouts. But he keeps the talent kind of low key so that he for the most part stays under the radar with people. But on the night the movie starts he is playing at a casino and winning at cards.
This action makes the security people upstairs who are watching him suspicious. They think he is cheating in some way and want to grab him for some questioning. But because he is now aware of them he rather deftly evades capture by stealing a car in an elaborate cat and mouse game of evasion.
The movie then switches to the office of one Callie Ferris played by the lovely Julianne Moore who is an FBI agent also tipped off about Nic Cage's character. She's been watching his show and is also suspicious. But suspicious in that his abilities must be somehow real. She tries to recruit him to helping her find some terrorists of European origin who have brought a nuclear weapon into the city of LA and plan to blow that up. Cris for his part doesn't want any part of this because as a child he underwent examination after examination about his gift and thus wishes to keep his low profile life.
He has regular habits. He always visits this coffee shop at the same time every day because he has seen a vision of a girl that will come there. True enough that girl does come and is played by the lovely Jessica Biel. He wants to get out of the area so after some drama with her and a mad suitor of hers he gains her sympathy, after the suitor decks him..
Thus they embark on our adventure and we have both the FBI and now the terrorists after this guy. I won't say any more because the movie picks up from the point after they leave the coffee shop and things start moving at a good pace. The ending left me gasping because I thought I was watching one set of events, but it all tied together very well as far as I'm concerned.