Next: I predict a bomb will nuke this movie.

Cast/Character:

Nicolas Cage – Cris Johnson
Julianne Moore – Callie Ferris
Jessica Biel – Liz Cooper
Thomas Kretschmann – Mr. Smith
Troy Kittles – Cavanaugh
Peter Falk – Irv


Story:

Cris Johnson has a special ability since childhood and can see 2 minutes into his own future, but only for 2 minutes and only his future. He is chase by the FBI and terrorist because of it. The FBI wants him to help with their investigation in which a nuclear bomb will be detonated. The terrorist want to kill him because he’ll spoil their plans. Meanwhile Cris keeps seeing a woman named Liz that can make him see her future and farther then 2 minutes. He is attracted to her and is determined to meet with her to find out their connection, but with the FBI on the hunt for him things are not going to be easy.



The Good:

The Beginning was off to a pretty good start. Cage’s character Cris is shown to be a man trying to hide his strange abilities and by using it creatively for his benefit but not to harm people. Nicolas Cage’s acting was pretty good, I always like him films. He gives a sort of charisma and cleverness to his actions.

Some of the action scenes were pretty good. The one I liked the most was Cris using his powers to evade the casino guards after he’s suspected to cheating on the tables. I thought the filming was very good, showing Cris ducking in and out between slot machines, right under the guard’s nose and then slipping into the bathroom and changing clothes then slipping right out again. It was very smooth.

I like how they show Cris’s powers for the audience to see and how he is experiencing it. The future scenes were interesting, although it can be confusing as to what is really happening and what Cris is predicting will happen. But the scene where he tries to find a kidnapped Liz, thinking of the many possible futures by showing multiple Cris’s looking was fun.



The Not So Good:

It started off good. The pace started off well; the story began in an interesting way, but things started to go slightly downhill when Chris meets Liz at the diner. It was because of the annoying little scenes here and there that put me off. I have nothing against Nicolas Cage or Jessica Biel but put the two together as a couple didn’t really fit for me. Cage look way too old for her, he could be her father. Cage’s hair style was another annoying issue that I could not take my mind off of. All I thought about was “God his hair looks awful.” This bothered me to no end.

The scene where Biel’s character stops by an Indian reserve as a teacher was not necessary other then to show that Cage’s character is great with kids. This doesn’t serve the overall plot too well; if it did it would connect with the other scenes. This scene however was out of place.

The film gave no reason on why the villains want to nuke America. I never felt any danger because, well why are they doing it in the first place? As a hobby? I thought it was really silly having random Europeans being terrorist, about to blow a Russian nuclear bomb. It’s always those darn Russians it seems like. But did that guy sound British? Or French? Hmm…

There was not much character development here. For me insight on a character is essential to sell the story because you are following a certain character on their journey. There was no reason to care about them. Cris’s stated that he was treated to experiments since he was 3 which I didn’t care for. No tears coming from my eyes. Biel’s character was really stale for me. They never hinted any sort of explanation as to why Cris can see farther into the future with Liz then with himself. Thus what’s the purpose of her character anyhow? They could’ve added some scenes for character development as the film’s running time wasn’t that long.

It also really seemed silly to me to spend all your resources to chase a man that may tell you the future, instead of concentrating on the actual terrorist. A weak plot explanation to concentrate on Cris’s character.

The ending was rather disappointing. I won’t reveal it, but it doesn’t give a good wrap up, just a tried to “surprise you” ending as well as “everything you just watched seems pointless now”.



Run Time: 1 hr. 33 minutes