Next

Not, as you might have thought, the first in a series of films based on popular UK fashion retailers (I was especially looking forward to Dorothy Perkins: The Motion Picture and Primark: Live Free or Chav Hard), Next stars Nicolas Cage (who does apparently have more than one facial expression, but he has to share it with Vin Diesel) as a man who can see a few minutes into the future, which I imagine is reasonably advantageous. It sounds a bit like Minority Report to me, but being directed by Lee Tamahori, is not nearly so crisp and clever as Spielberg's effort. I wonder whether Tamahori might have built up an ongoing rapport with Jerry Goldsmith had the composer lived on, although in truth, most of Tamahori's efforts have been considerably below Goldsmith's talents (it was ever thus) and Mark Isham picks up the baton for Next.

At this point I feel compelled to remind everyone of Isham's fairly poor track record when it comes to this kind of action thriller. After the plentiful noir-ish joys of The Black Dahlia and the delightfully tuneful Racing Stripes I wasn't convinced that Next would hold up to either of those efforts. It doesn't. However, in the sub-genre of Isham action scores, Next is one of the better efforts. The opening isn't anything special, synth pads and twinkling pianos, but with Give Me Two Minutes, it picks up, mixing electronic percussion, chopping strings and all the typical elements one would expect from a 21st century action score. Not exactly dripping in originality, but effectively mixed together and done with a lightness of touch that Arnold could have done with in Tamahori's Bond effort, Die Another Day. The suspense music is also considerably above average; A Few Minutes of Your Time is notably well wrought. Again, nothing overly original in plinking pianos, low strings and ticking percussion, but it feels as though it's going somewhere and the little motifs Isham uses are fairly memorable.

For all the good things, there are a few dead spots. Who Knows What's Safe and most of Breaking News are vaguely ominous, but don't go anywhere very quickly and leave the album sagging a little in the middle. However, Second and Broadway sees the score hotting up once again and Isham allows himself to be a little bolder in the scoring towards the finale. Next is a mildly frustrating score to review and recommend; there are enough good parts to make it worth a listen, but not enough that's truly outstanding to bowl anyone over. The action is leanly scored and doesn't beat the listener about and most of the suspense is pleasingly interesting. However, with Hostage and Firewall, Alexandre Desplat has become the unlikely benchmark for the contemporary thriller. Isham is damn close, but melodically a whisker below Desplat's sensibility.