When will our collective patience run out with Nicolas Cage? When does the good will, fostered by fond memories of 'Valley Girl,' 'Moonstruck,' 'Raising Arizona,' even 'Wild at Heart,' evaporate? And can anything erase traces of 'Ghost Rider' from our minds?

A bracing dose of advanced mathematics might provide an answer, but all we have to go on for the moment is 'Next,' Cage's latest silly action movie, pleasantly but not competently shaded with sci-fi potential.

The premise, stuck as it is amid increasingly foolish predicaments, is still a decent one, though. Read more