Knowing

2009 movie

Rating: 7/20

Plot: During the opening of an elementary school time capsule, a college professor's son opens up an envelope to find a piece of paper filled with seemingly random numbers. Upon further investigation, those numbers give the dates, the casualties, and the longitude and latitude coordinates for major disasters taking place in the fifty years since the burial of the time capsule. The college professor realizes that the numbers falling into his hands was not accidental and rushes around trying to prevent the final three disasters from occuring.

Nicolas Cage is on a roll! The meanest thing I can say about this one is that it reminded me of Shymalongadingdong's The Happening, although it's nowhere near as terrible (or as funny) as that one. Still, I did laugh at a few inappropriate times, mostly at America's-worst-actor Nicolas Cage's screaming of a few lines. One scene involving a baseball bat, a tree, and the line "You want some of this?!" almost had me on the floor. The almighty special effect can't save a pair of action scenes from being either schmaltzy or ludicrous, and all attempts to insert some emotion or meaning into this one seem forced and gay. The twists and turns in this are sloppy, the equivalent of driving your car on an unpaved road that is winding for no particular reason. Even with that, there's some predictability. I'd give credit for a good ending, but I'm not sure if the ending was actually good or if I was just happy that the movie was ending. I can't recommend this like The Happening, but it does make me wonder how long it's going to be before Nicolas Cage and Shymalongadingdong combine forces to make what will without a doubt be the worst movie ever made.