How I ruined a Monday evening ...

Rating: 1/10 (24 June 2009)

This is maybe the worst movie I've seen so far in this century. It's not that I really put much expectation into this. After watching some of Cage's last mystery slowpokes as Next" or The Wicker Man" I should know what to expect from Oscar prize winner and former Independent movie star Nicolas Cage. But anyway I hoped to be someway entertained on a Monday evening after a day of work in a multimillion Dollar Hollywood way, but I wasn't.
The main problem of the movie is the story. A colleague asked me at lunchtime about yesterday evening, so I told him about the movie and put together the plot in a few words but accidentally started to laugh, at: the world ended and everybody died but his little son and his little girlfriend, who were saved by angel like aliens and set out on an other planet were they run over cheesy fields ahead a very old tree." This Happy Ending" is quite grotesque. The whole story is silly and totally implausible. An unhappy, alcoholic Astronomy Professor founds accidentally a list of numbers indicating date, location and number of victims of every major catastrophe the western world suffered during the last 50 years. Some catastrophes the oriental and third world suffered are mentioned too, but as we learned from western media people there are not as important as we are. Since some of them are not happened yet he asks himself questions about randomness and destiny before he realizes world's ending tomorrow. Later the world ended and everybody died but  I really do not know what to say about this. It's just so stupid. Maybe the writers thought a story about randomness and destiny would allow the book to develop in such way so ridiculous casualties can happen totally unexplained.
The acting is widely tolerable and Nicolas Cage shows another time he handles getting egg on his face better then anyone else. His trademark since "Raising Arizona". Nevertheless it does not fit well in his role, just because "Knowing" is not in a bit ironic. A necessary ingredient for a good Cage, even in such a tragic movie as "Leaving Las Vegas" was.
One scene should be mentioned. The only highlight of the movie is the crashing of the plane "accidentally" next to the place were Nicolas Cage is caught up in a traffic jam. Impressive is Cage's walk through the crash side right after the plane came down. Out of the debris rise burning survivors shouting for help while parts of the wreckage are still exploding. The camera is shadowing Cage like in a documentary, which makes the scene not as dramatic at it could be but drastically realistic. After all I do not know how realistic burning survivors shouting for help are after such a plane crash but it felt incredibly intense and real.
It's the kind of Hollywood production you wouldn't easy notice how bad it is if you turn down the volume. It was just to expensive. But after all it's still trash. Maybe I should reconsider my vote on this movie just because of one interesting scene. Maybe two stars instead of one? Better not – someway this movie ruined my Monday evening.