Movie Review ~ KNOWING

This movie opened today nationwide and it was one that I've been seeing trailers for since November. I was psyched to see this film - probably a little too psyched as it turns out.

In 1959 a young female student at a newly opened elementary school makes the winning contest suggestion of inserting a time capsule into the ground at the school's dedication ceremony. The capsule is to be opened in 50 years. All the children in the class draw pictures of what they believe the future will look like except for this her. Instead she writes rows of random numbers on the entire page.

In 2009, the time capsule is opened and the new generation of students is each given an envelope from within. The girl's envelope ends up in the hands of Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury). Calebs father, MIT Professor Astrophysicist John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), looks at the numbers and doesn't think much of it initially. Later he accidentally stumbles on what the numbers actually mean. The encoded message accurately predicts the dates, death tolls, and coordinate locations of every major disaster during the last 50 years, along with a few events that have not yet occurred. John believes there is some way he can intervene and alter the events that have yet to happen.

The movie has a great premise. It's even very entertaining until the latter portion of the film. That's where this viewer learned that "Knowing" isn't everything afterall. 

Cage was good, but at times I felt his part was over-acted. The effects during the various disaster scenes were pretty cool, well done, and very intense.  There's a lot of action in this movie. The film's ending was really cheesy though, and it pretty much ruined my overall impression of the film.  The entire movie was building up to something major, but the story conclusion and its symbolism was simply a big letdown for me.

I'd give this one a C/C+. It was probably much better as a book, and I recommend waiting for the DVD release.

Staring: Nicholas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson, Nadia Townsend and Ben Mendelsohn.
Rating: PG-13 for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language.
Runtime: 1:30 min.