Knowing

Rating: 4/10 (12 April 2009)

I had seen one or two clips of this film, and thought it might be alright, and I was right, alright is all it will ever be, from director Alex Proyas (I, Robot). Basically in 1959 a time capsule full of student pictures of what the future will look like is buried, and young Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson) puts in a paper of random numbers. Fifty years later, 2009, this time capsule is taken out of the ground, and young Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) is the one who takes the paper of numbers. When his scientist father John (Nicolas Cage) takes a look at the paper, he begins deciphering it as cryptic but accurate messages pinpointing the dates, death count and co-ordinates to every major global event. He is convinced the numbers he hasn't circled are clues to many other major events to the world, so he is trying to find out more about little Lucinda from people who knew her, including her daughter Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne), with daughter Abby (Robinson again). John does try to warn authorities of one event that he pinpoints, but he was too late, and he knows that a heat ray from the sun is going to strike the Earth, and the only way to survive is to find somewhere deep underground. So it is now a race against time to reach some caves, but after some mysterious encounters with them earlier, it is apparent that the kids are meant to leave the planet with some alien strangers, while Diana died in a car crash, and John stays on Earth going back to his sister and parents to die. Also starring Ben Mendelsohn as Phil Beckman, Nadia Townsend as Grace Koestler, Alan Hopgood as Rev. Koestler and D.G. Maloney as The Stranger. Cage needed a break after some bad choices, e.g. The Wicker Man (remake), Ghost Rider, and if it weren't for the film being so predictable and not engaging enough, I would say he made a good choice. The only things I enjoyed in this film were the plane and train disasters assisted by special effects, and the Bernard Herrmann-inspired music score by Terminator composer Marco Beltrami, but other than that, it is only worth one viewing. Okay!