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Bookmark this pageKnowing (2009)
Director: Alex Proyas
Movie review
From Time Out London
Alex Proyas’s derivative sci-fi movie is a close encounter of the nerd kind, mixing Spielbergian child-like wonder, disaster movie spectacle and the cod-religious silliness of M Night Shyamalan’s ‘Signs’. The premise is compelling, but the execution is over-cooked.
A string of numbers scribbled by an obsessive schoolgirl back in 1959 is given to the son of MIT astrophysicist Nicolas Cage, when a time capsule buried fifty years before is disinterred. Although Cage’s father is a pastor, since the death of his wife he has believed that life is just a random string of accidents. Then he finds patterns in the numbers that seem to correspond to the dates of disasters, and starts to wonder if our fates really are predetermined.
Unfortunately, consideration of these weighty issues soon gives way to what feels like an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ on steroids. There is hard scientific talk about unusual solar flare activity, and intimations of a global ecological disaster. But then the pale-faced ‘Whispering People’ start handing out smooth black stones, and rationality gives way to portentous religious talk about God’s prophet Ezekiel. By the time single mother Rose Byrne, daughter of the now-dead 50s schoolgirl, takes Cage and his young son to the crazy lady’s abandoned mobile home in the woods, it’s easy to predict where this is headed.
The apocalyptic images are impressive, but what do they all add up to? You may end up asking yourself, in the spirit of Erich Von Däniken, ‘Was God An Astronaut?”
Author: Nigel Floyd
Time Out London Issue 2015, Apr 2-8 2009
User reviews of this film
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- marie said...
- Posted on Apr 27 2009 16:11 there is action but the story is rubbish especially the end...
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- devo said...
- Posted on Apr 27 2009 16:00 Good premise starting out but then went off the rails. Cage's acting is getting boring. Like Costner stealing Little Big Man for Dancing with Wolves this ended up to be a rip of Close Encounters of a Third Kind. It actually looked like somebody lost the final part of the script on their way to work.
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- katrine said...
- Posted on Apr 27 2009 06:59 this is very typical story!!!
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- rusty said...
- Posted on Apr 25 2009 20:29 very enjoyable film not the best but a good evenings entertainment
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- Prof said...
- Posted on Apr 25 2009 11:21 Had the makings of a very good movie. Very good special effects and a good story. Unfortunately the last 20 minutes or so made me laugh out loud at how ridiculous it was.
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- miles said...
- Posted on Apr 24 2009 18:40 great movie -seen it 3 times and still want more -
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- graham said...
- Posted on Apr 24 2009 17:05 i did not know there are so many brain dead people in the world this film is a pile of sh-t if you are daft then you might get the end if not dont waste your time on this crap
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- Richard said...
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Posted on Apr 24 2009 13:26
I really don't know what movie some of these people have seen, but it certainly does not sound like “Knowing”.
I thought that it was an entertaining, sometimes unforgiving gruesome, clever and different take on a classic sci-fi story. A thoroughly enjoyable film from start to finish (yes I said to finish because although quite sci-fi'esque, what were people expecting, it is after all a sci-fi movie).
OK, so the writer borrows from numerous other successful sci-fi movies for some of its character’s relationships and the plots of the film (I wont say what bits because that might spoil the movie for those who have not seen it or know the plot), but AI, Signs, The Day After Tomorrow, Contact and ET were all represented, but offered with a slightly different take.
The rawness of the violence at times was a little difficult to watch (but that's just me) because the way it was shot pulled no punches, when people died you saw them exploding in a mess of blood or being engulfed in flames, but this was such a small part of the movie that it was soon forgotten and I was on the edge of my seat again looking to see what happened next.
Great movie. Not an all time favourite or a classic, but a damn good evening out. - Report as inappropriate
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- Daniel Cullinane said...
- Posted on Apr 23 2009 19:57 Knowing is quite a impressive and entertaining little thriller but with a pointless and terrible ending to the film.
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- MIke said...
- Posted on Apr 23 2009 07:24 absolutely stupid ending.... ruined what could have been a good movie. i feel dumb after watching it
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- Darren Casker said...
- Posted on Apr 22 2009 19:10 Tidy film, well done until the naff ending. Shame, good until last 20 minutes.
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- Paul said...
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Posted on Apr 22 2009 09:55
Good film. I think there are a lot of short sighted comments being added here by people blinded by the wish for a happy ending and a fully explained story from start to finish. The biblical conotations were cleaver -especially at the end and the film serves as a reminder that no matter how much we think we are great, just, massively intelligent and have every right to be within the cosmos - we're actually not important at all and can be wiped out very easily.
I say stop locking for the usual hollywood cliche'esk film and accept that this film offers a different spin on our mortallity and does very well what it was intending to do - gets you thinking. - Report as inappropriate
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- JIM said...
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Posted on Apr 20 2009 17:18
Pat, what would compel you to complain about people giving the end of a movie away, then go right ahead... and give the movie away.
I take it that if your fun is spoiled, then eveyone elses has to be too?
This country... - Report as inappropriate
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- Debbie said...
- Posted on Apr 20 2009 16:57 Brilliant film UNTIL 20mins from the end. The ridiculous ending was so bad it ruined the whole film. The intrigue and suspense built all the way through the film and when the plot was revealed everyone in the cinema groaned...some even walked out. Shockingly bad. Cannot believe Nicholas Cage read to the end of the script when he accepted this role.
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- jay said...
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Posted on Apr 20 2009 13:50
OUTSTANDING CG, HORRIBLE MOVIE!
it's like mixing alien and bible - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Alex Proyas
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury, Lara Robinson, Ben Mendelsohn, D.G. Maloney, Nadia Townsend full cast
Rated: 15
Duration: 121 mins
UK Release: Mar 25 2009
US Release: Mar 20 2009
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