The one with the mini movie review – Knowing

As I’ve mentioned before, I'm a sucker for these end of the world / conspiracy movies. A lot of the time these movies are quite cheesy and the world is saved in the closing moments.

So, from the man who brought us the wonderful I-Robot (wonder did Apple sue for the title?), Alex Proyas, comes Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage and a host of actors that aren't as well known as the man who swapped faces back in the day with John Travolta.

Knowing has a straight forward story. School in the 50’s decides on making a time capsule and the weird kid in the class scratches loads of numbers on a big page. This along with hundreds of drawings of rocket ships and flying cars are buried into the ground, in a nice, large, silver thermos flask….or something.

50 years later, the school opens up the Thermos flask and the kids all get a piece of what's inside. John Koestler’s (played by Cage) son, of course gets the page with all the numbers on it. From there daddy Cage takes a look at it and realises that all the numbers correspond to disasters throughout history. The number’s not only show what happened in the past but also predict the future. The date, how many will be killed and the longitude and latitude of the event.Then some wise person asks "What happens when the numbers run out?” The conspiracy theory fans will love the fact about the people who are trying to abduct Cage’s son in the movie. Are they government? Are they some secret organisation? Are they pizza delivery men?

Without giving too much away that’s Knowing in a shell made from nuts. When the predictions come true, the set piece’s are truly horrific and terrifying. Granted they could have been made a bit more gory, but you cant help but wonder is this how a plane crash or subway disaster might actually look like.

From the movie watcher’s point of view, Knowing is kind of like Final Destination. In the sense that you cant wait for the next death to happen even though it may make for grim viewing. Unlike Final Destination, Knowing features a limited number of death sequences. You could count them on one hand to be honest. And for me, they could have increased the terror scale by having 2 or 3 more predictions. That said, the with recent rail and air tragedies, the sequences do really play on the mind. I wouldn't fancy this as an in-flight movie!

There's going to be no best actor performances from Knowing but the movie is solidly made with some terrifically well shot set pieces. Th  row in one or two little “jump” scares and Knowing is a very good movie, with solid, if not average performances from all involved. As with these  genre of movies, some people may feel the whole thing is unbelievable, particularly in the final quarter. But don't let that put you off. Knowing has plenty of good old fashioned entertainment, that doesn't require your brain to be in full working order to enjoy.

8/10