Parental Content Review
Knowing (2009)
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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
You will be on the edge of your seat the entire time %u2026 constantly trying to work up the will to just walk away from this monster before it destroys your love of movies and Nicolas Cage forever.
Alex Proyas has taken what began as a fairly basic sci-fi concept built on the idea of a 50 year time capsule, to heights of psychological and visceral bravado.
A solid escapist cinematic experience enhanced by its chilling symbolism, filled with tension and thrills, fabulous special effects and a monumentally big scale ending.
The draggy, lurching two hours of Knowing will make you long for the end of the world, even as you worry that there will not be time for all your questions to be answered.
The movie's big, dumb elements come in all the wrong places; they provide lots of anxiety but little relief.
Knowing" is one of those movies that when you get to the lobby, you begin asking yourself or others a lot of questions about why did they do this, or why was that required.
A stunning film laced with absorbing performances, jarring special effects, and atmospheric set design. It has been a long time since a film has evoked as many creepy, spine deep tingles as this one.
Entrancing even when it is at its most outlandish, Knowing is a breathtaking metaphysical rumination that, in the final seconds, actually caused me to cry out loud in uninhibited glee.
As Knowing gets increasingly preposterous, and Cage's stony deadpan acting seems even sillier in context, a kind of slack-jawed joy may overtake you. How on earth did this movie get made?
He's like Mel Gibson in "Signs," only his visitors know how to open doors.
daring and deliberate, as if Proyas wanted to purposely undermine the expectations of the standard popcorn pandering
A little levity, applied at key moments, might have helped it make its points and lend plausibility to its characters.
If you're of a mind to believe a dreary and far-fetched thriller about numerology-crazed alien life forms, then you may find the movie mildly diverting.
It is predictable hogwash, and it gets even hogwashier until it arrives at an ending that manages to be inevitable, uninspired, and preposterous.
Was there a prediction of this laughably bad movie in The Mothman Prophecies?
The resolution of the mysterious visitors' mission and John's crisis of faith feels more like an excuse to stage some hellacious cataclysms than the product of a genuine belief in anything at all.
Give Knowing credit for the courage of its convictions and an ending so nutty I had to laugh out loud.
Hokum is best served straight, not as a New Age cocktail with too many ingredients.
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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