Knowing DVD Review

July 7th, Summit Entertainment and Director Alex Proyas present the science fiction suspense thriller movie Knowing, starring Nicholas Cage. When a mysterious little girl’s “random” number sequences turn up in a 50-year time capsule, Professor John Koestler (Cage) realizes there is more to the numbers than just nothingness.

After noticing that one of the sequences of numbers, when broken apart, produces 9/11/01 and 2996 (the reported number of people killed), John investigates further. Soon, he discovers that the age of numbers is full of similar patterns. He matches up most of the numbers with dates of significant tragedies and the number of confirmed deaths. There are only a few groupings of numbers missing. When he narrowly escapes a plane crash that lands right next to his park car, John begins to consider the cosmic and supernatural aspects of what he is dealing with. His GPS displays latitude and longitude numbers which John matches up with a missing group of numbers on the sheet. He now understands that the two remaining sequences include dates, deaths and location of major events about to happen. The question is, why does he have this information?

John tracks the name of Lucinda, the girl who wrote the list of dates 50 years earlier. He finds that Lucinda is dead, so he seeks out her daughter Diana (Rose Byrne) and tries to explain that he needs her help. She is initially put off by John’s story, but she shows up at his door a few days later after his next date prediction comes true and a New York subway accident occurs. Diana tells John that the final date on the sheet (10/19) is the date Lucinda told Diana she was going to die. They begin to trace Lucinda’s history in an attempt to help uncover her final prediction, which is the most powerful of them all.

Knowing is definitely captivating and intense. It is 100 percent sci-fi thriller, despite some quite far-fetched plot concepts and under explained scientific logic. Nicholas Cage is solid, though he is looking a bit frail these days. Knowing is in the same vein as other recent science fiction movies that have involved beyond this world events with grand scale consequences.

One bit of advice to parents, while the movie is Rated PG-13, there are some very intense and graphic crash sequences that rival many R-Rated films. Knowing is a thrill ride from start to finish, with star power, compelling suspense and drama, and a nice climax. There are plenty of jumpy moments as well if you like to be spooked.

MPAA Rating: PG-13Running Time: 121 minutesDVD Release Date: July 7, 2009

DVD Review by Neil of Movie Room Reviews

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!