If you want to know how inept the movie is...well, it's so inept that you may wish you were watching an M. Night Shyamalan version of the very same premise.
Knowing (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:160
Fresh:52
Rotten:108
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Knowing has some interesting ideas and a couple good scenes, but it's weighted down by its absurd plot and over-seriousness.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language.
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Theatrical Release:25-03-2009
Synopsis:
Nicolas Cage stars in Knowing, a gripping action-thriller of global proportions about a professor who stumbles on terrifying predictions about the future—and sets out to prevent them from coming...
Nicolas Cage stars in Knowing, a gripping action-thriller of global proportions about a professor who stumbles on terrifying predictions about the future—and sets out to prevent them from coming true.
In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But one mysterious girl fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead.
Fifty years later, a new generation of students examines the capsule’s contents and the girl’s cryptic message ends up in the hands of young CALEB KOESTLER. But it is Caleb’s father, professor JOHN KOESTLER (Nicolas Cage), who makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years. As John further unravels the document’s chilling secrets, he realizes the document foretells three additional events—the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve John and his son. When John’s attempts to alert the authorities fall on deaf ears, he takes it upon himself to try to prevent more destruction from taking place.
With the reluctant help of DIANA WAYLAND (Rose Byrne) and ABBY WAYLAND, the daughter and granddaughter of the now-deceased author of the prophecies, John’s increasingly desperate efforts take him on a heart-pounding race against time until he finds himself facing the ultimate disaster—and the ultimate sacrifice.
--© Summit Entertainment
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn, Terry Camilleri
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn, Terry Camilleri
Director: Alex Proyas
Director: Alex Proyas
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Reviews for Knowing
Knowing's path is so far fetched, disturbing and down right awful that I would expect to find very few people who enjoyed this film.
It's the movie Keanu Reeves' Day the Earth Stood Still remake wished it could have been.
An anticlimactic, idiotic leap into low-end Shyamalan-ian insanity with a touch of moderate fundamentalism. Nicolas Cage's performance is deserving of another YouTube ode to awfulness, and only disaster scenes elevate it above straight-to-DVD status.
A few may find revelation in this awkward fusion of 'Left Behind' meets 'Close Encounters', but most will simply find grave disappointment
I started out loathing this movie. I thought the director had flipped out and was taking the long way 'round to get to the point. By the time it was over, and I had gasped out loud at its amazing finale, I knew I wanted to see it again.
Nicolas Cage finally has an excuse for his Joey Tribiani 'smell the fart' acting style. The movie stinks.
"Front-loaded with a pervasive sense of unease ... but once the plot's wheels start grinding in earnest, [it] follows that runaway subway train off the rails."
So silly that it not only strains credulity--it shatters it and then stomps it into infinitesimal pieces.
An exciting , if not entirely plausible, sci-fi thriller. After this one, 'Next' and the 'National Treasure' movies star Nicolas Cage clearly likes 'Knowing' things before the rest of us.
Knowing is a complex movie that is waaaaay out there. Sure, these ideas are pretty far on the fringe, but they make for some pretty exciting movie watching.
Apocalyptic sci-fi thrillers are supposed to be thought-provoking and supernaturally suspenseful, but this is just paranormally dopey.
Imagine that the nitwits who wrote those preposterous Left Behind apocalyptic end-times fantasies decided to try their pens at something X-Files-y...
Feels like the sort of poorly defined spiritual salve that M. Night Shyamalan concocts in between preening sessions in front of the mirror.
This is a strange, scatterbrained hybrid of disaster movie and theologically minded science fiction. It’s like The Happening with math.
The movie dissolves into Cage running around trying to warn people about the numbers, but he doesn't know exactly what is going to happen or where it's coming from, so we get the crazy doomsayer routine by day and boozing while lamenting by night.
Latest News for Knowing
July 06, 2009:
RT on DVD: Knowing, Push, The Unborn Unleashed
It's a genre lover's feast this week on DVD, but don't say we didn't warn you about those pesky rotten Tomatometers. First up? Alex Proyas's latest science fiction thriller,... More...
March 22, 2009:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Audiences Power Knowing To # 1
This weekend Moviegoers still love Nicolas Cage action flicks as the actor's latest film, the doomsday thriller Knowing, easily beat out two other new releases to capture the... More...
March 19, 2009:
Critics Consensus: I Love You, Man Is A Fine Bromance
This week at the movies, we've got a bromantic comedy (I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel), ominous numerology (Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne),... More...
March 19, 2009:
Box Office Guru Preview: Cage, Roberts, and Rudd Battle For #1 Spot
Three new films roll into North American multiplexes and for the first time in ages, all three have a realistic chance of claiming the number one spot. Comedies have been... More...
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