All that psychic ability, but they couldn't see how to make 'Next' less confusing

In the mess of an occult thriller "Next," which is loosely based on a story by Philip K. Dick, Nicolas Cage plays a man who can see two minutes into his future, and thus the instant consequences of any action he might take in any particular situation.

Does he use this gift to win billions at the roulette table, pick winners at Santa Anita or plunder the stock market? No. He uses it sparingly so he can hide from the world as a small-time magician and mind-reader in a Vegas lounge act.

But word gets around and, when French terrorists (yes, French terrorists) are about to incinerate most of Southern California with a hidden nuclear device, a government agent (Julianne Moore) tries to track him down so he can tell her where the bomb is planted.

For reasons that are never quite clear, the guy doesn't want to help save L.A. and goes on the run, aided by a women he encounters along the way (Jessica Biel) and pursued by both the feds and the monstrous (but politically correct) French evil-doers.

The gimmick of the movie is that we keep seeing terrible things happen to the hero, but it's only a tease: it's what WOULD happen to him if he couldn't see the future and apply a course correction. After the first dozen or so times, it becomes quite tiresome.

And since the script keeps changing its rules -- sometimes the guy can see more than two minutes ahead, sometimes he can't; sometimes he can see things that are going to happen beyond his immediate presence, sometimes he can't -- it all becomes impossibly confusing.

As a thriller, "Next" goes a certain distance on Cage's sad-sack charm and sense of humor, but it does nothing with its intriguing premise, and it's mostly just one more tedious and progressively dumb collection of Hollywood action clichés.

"Next" also contains something I never thought I'd see in a movie: a one-note, authentically bad performance by Julianne Moore. After more than a decade of threatening to become her generation's Meryl Streep, the woman appears to have finally been beaten by the system.