Nicolas Cage isn’t exactly a chameleonic actor, but his projects would have you believe otherwise. Bouncing back and forth between big-budget action flicks like “The Rock”, and “Gone in 60 Seconds” to quieter fare like “The Weather Man” and “Leaving Las Vegas”, Cage has stymied his fans and critics at every turn, yet, despite all of this, still remains as big of a box-office draw as he was back in his “Con Air” days. With “Next”, Cage returns to the big-budget action arena, albeit in its now popular neutered PG-13 form.

Cage stars as Cris Johnson, a man with the ability to see two minutes into the future. After a lifetime of poking and prodding from scientific types, Cris has maintained a low-profile as an off-the-strip Vegas nightclub magician named Frank Cadillac. For weeks, though, Cris has been having visions of Liz (Jessica Biel), a beautiful girl he sees entering a diner at precisely 9:00, and he has worked his schedule around being in that diner to await her arrival. Seeing as how he has never seen anything beyond two minutes into the future, Cris is determined to meet the girl, if only to find out just how she factors into his complicated life; one that becomes more complicated as the FBI tracks down Cris for his assistance in finding a rogue nuclear weapon smuggled into the United States. Cris assures them that, due to his limited glimpses into the future, he can’t be of any help, but Agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) believes otherwise, as do the people responsible for the theft of the weapon. Now, while the feds and terrorists close in, Cris must discover just why it is that Liz has come into his life.

Next has a really neat gimmick that’s similar to the recent Denzel Washington thriller, “Déjà vu”, in which we get to see the outcome of certain situations before they actually happen, and then watch as Cris entertains various approaches until the outcome is an acceptable one. It’s best used toward the film’s climax, in which we see multiple versions of Cris investigating a terrorist hideout, with each experiencing various demises. It’s fun and entertaining stuff, but, unlike Déjà vu, doesn’t bog things down with much by way of science or backstory. Cris explains it best when he says that he doesn’t know what his gift is or why he has it; he just does. Sure it’s a lazy way to explain things, but Next doesn’t really work up much of a sweat explaining anything, let alone why the FBI are wasting so many resources to find Cris when they should be tracking down the terrorists with the big ol’ bomb! Seeing as how this story is based on the brainy work of Phillip K. Dick, one would expect a bit more by way of sci-fi/cyberpunkiness to fortify things, but director Lee Tamahori offers enough visual bang for our buck that we’re happy just to munch on our Milk Duds and let the film entertain us on the most primal levels.

The DVD from Paramount offers a quartet of short featurettes, including Making the Best Next Thing; The Next "Grand Idea"; Two Minutes in the Future With Jessica Biel; and Visualizing the Next Move.

While Tamahori’s adaptation of Dick’s story isn’t apt to blow any minds, Next is still an entertaining and engrossing bit of action/paranormal fluff that will surely please Cage’s legion of fans, and shouldn't outrage too many of Dick’s overly-cerebral readers.