Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Next (2007) - Weak script sinks Tamahori's Dick adaptation

10/29/2021

Next (2007) - Weak script sinks Tamahori's Dick adaptation

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Hot and cold meet in terms of colors on this star-pushing poster for Lee Tamahori's Next

A Las Vegas magician can see 2 minutes into his future, as he gets involved in a shooting incident. In its wake he is wanted in order to help retrieve a stolen weapon, and he also falls in love.

Next is written by Gary Goldman (Big Trouble in Little China (1986)), Jonathan Hensleigh (Armageddon (1998)) and Paul Bernbaum (Hollywoodland (2006)), loosely adapting the 1954 short story The Golden Man by Philip K. Dick (The Man Who Japed (1956)), and directed by great New-Zealander filmmaker Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors (1994)).

It is regrettably a very bad Dick adaptation. The script is the main culprit: If you ask questions about the plot (as one usually does), almost nothing holds up in Next.

Jessica Biel (The A-Team (2010)) and Nicolas Cage (Astro Boy (2009)) barely make the cut performance-wise, but nothing much happens to their characters in terms of development. Hollow action and CGI doesn't salvage this miscarriage.

Lee Tamahori: Die Another Day (2002) - Tamahori makes a thrilling, grand piece of Bond escapism

Watch a 2-minute clip from the movie here

Cost: 78.1 mil. $

Box office: 77.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.99 times its cost)

[Next was released 25 April (France, Belgium) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place from April 2006 - ? in Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada and California, including Los Angeles. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Disturbia and fellow new release The Invisible, to a 7.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 18.2 mil. $ (23.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 7.1 mil. $ (9.2 %) and the UK with 4.9 mil. $ (6.3 %). Tamahori returned with The Devil's Double (2011). Cage returned in National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007); Biel in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007); and Julianne Moore (Gloria Bell (2018)) in Savage Grace (2007). Next is rotten at 28 % with a 4.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Next?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

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Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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10/29/2021

Next (2007) - Weak script sinks Tamahori's Dick adaptation

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