The Underrated Nicolas Cage Sci-Fi Movie You Can Stream On Amazon
Historically speaking, there are not many actors in showbiz who can boast quite as unpredictable a resume as Nicolas Cage. After coming of age in '80s classics like Valley Girl, Raising Arizona, and Moonstruck, Cage was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood for much of the '90s, fronting blockbuster properties (Honeymoon in Vegas, The Rock, Con Air) and indie gems (Wild at Heart, Red Rock West) alike. Heck, he even netted a Best Actor Academy Award for his work in Leaving Las Vegas, and closed out the decade by appearing in Martin Scorsese's unsung 1999 masterpiece Bringing Out the Dead.
The 2000s and beyond, however, have proven pretty hit or miss for Cage. Sure, he's remained a steady presence on Hollywood's A-minus list, typically booking several movies a year, but the actor has spent the past couple of decades serving up a steady share of misses (Bangkok Dangerous, The Wicker Man, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and many more) among a handful of legitimate hits and cult favorites (National Treasure, Adaptation, Mandy, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). In between those hits and misses, there's been no particular shortage of projects that range from fun but forgettable to seriously underrated. And thanks to the streaming boon, it's easier than ever to get eyes on each and every one of Nicolas Cage's past offerings.
If you're on the hunt for titles that slot into that "underrated" category from the mid-aughts, look no further than Amazon Prime Video. That's where you'll find one of Cage's more egregiously overlooked cinematic adventures, 2007's sci-fi marvel Next.
Nicolas Cage's Next is a sci-fi blast loosely based on the work of Philip K. Dick
Don't feel bad if you missed Next when it was released, or even if you just skipped its theatrical run altogether, because the film didn't exactly set the world on fire when it arrived in the spring of '07. In fact, Next was a legit bomb upon release, with its $77 million take failing to cover its reported $78 million budget.
Likewise, the critical response to Next was hardly glowing, with the film owning a decidedly less than fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Next is hardly a cinematic masterpiece, but that "rotten" rating still seems harsh for a pre-summer slice of sci-fi fancy with no such ambition. And even in spite of its flaws, Next remains an unapologetically fun-first action flick that spins a clever narrative from the pages of Philip K. Dick's classic short story "The Golden Man."
That tale follows a feral, golden-skinned clairvoyant who's tasked with eliminating powerful mutant beings deemed dangerous by the government. It should be noted here, however, that Next takes a very loose approach in adapting Dick's source material, essentially keeping only the central character's clairvoyant abilities and using it as the narrative tool in the tale of a future-seeing Vegas magician (Cage) who gets roped into an attempt to thwart a nuclear terrorist attack at the behest of a shady Homeland Security agent (Julianne Moore).
That plot would seem to twist Dick's sublimely complex narrative into an easily digestible tale of Hollywood-styled heroism. That's exactly what Next does. It does so in high style, though, delivering all the thrills and chills you'd expect from a big budget sci-fi bonanza, tempering it with just enough brains to keep you fully engaged. And yes, it also features an above board turn from Cage, who tempers that infamous rage throughout.