Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Nicolas Cage stars as Cris "Frank Cadillac" Johnson, a small-time magician in Las Vegas. Cris isn’t your ordinary slight-of-hand magician—he has the ability to see two minutes into the future. Is it a gift or a curse? FBI agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) discovers his ability and will stop at nothing to get him into custody in order to stop a planned nuclear attack on Los Angeles.

Sometimes when I watch a movie, I find myself in the wrong frame of mind to appreciate it, and I had hoped that was the reason I didn't like this one when I saw it last year on HD DVD. Unfortunately, a second viewing was no better than the first. In fact, I liked the movie even less. The story concept comes from Gary Goldman, but the writing team of Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh, and Paul Bernbaum couldn't take an interesting premise and turn it into a coherent screenplay. The dialog is forced, and the ending is about as unsatisfying as they come.

Utilizing an AVC encode, Next on Blu-ray looks nearly identical to the previously released HD DVD. Fine detail wavers a bit throughout, with some scenes appearing razor-sharp and others looking a bit soft, even in close-ups. Color saturation and contrast are both consistent but a little on the hot side, contributing to a slightly unrealistic look.

The HD DVD version included a Dolby TrueHD 5.1-channel soundtrack, but Paramount went with a PCM mix for this release. Comparing the two soundtracks "on the fly" yielded nearly identical results in quality, but the PCM track has slightly more depth and dimensionality. Dialog is very lifelike and easily intelligible, and the surround channels offer quite an experience, especially from chapter 13 to the end of the film, with lots of action throughout the soundfield.

All the bonus features are presented in HD, but like the film itself, they are entirely forgettable. The best of the bunch is a two-minute interview with Jennifer Biel (who stars as Liz Cooper, Cris' girlfriend), and the other materials include three behind-the-scenes featurettes and the theatrical trailer.

I really like the premise of this movie, but the screenplay didn't do it justice. The acting trio of Cage, Moore, and Biel did the best they could with what they were given, but even the best actors can only do so much. The presentation is quite good, but I would be hard pressed to recommend more than a rental.

Release Date: May 20, 2008

Film: 4 out of 10
Picture: 8 out of 10
Sound: 9 out of 10

Review System

Source
Panasonic DMP-BD30

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 Amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector