Knowing (2009)

Featured Audience Ratings

• John M

  
  Im not sure what to say here. I was very disappointed at the end. I just felt that it got kinda preachy and I don't know what else to say. Had me for a while and than just fell at the end for me.

• Lady D

  
  Surprisingly enjoyable (coming from a usual non-Sci-fi person). The film got better as it went on and some of the effects were pretty impressive.

• Phil H

  
  Now this was a good surprise, I was expecting a really lame Cage flick like we've been used to recently but I really enjoyed this :) The film feels very much like the next M. Night Shyamalan offering to be honest, the same kind of spooky plot with afew little twists that do make… More
  Now this was a good surprise, I was expecting a really lame Cage flick like we've been used to recently but I really enjoyed this :) The film feels very much like the next M. Night Shyamalan offering to be honest, the same kind of spooky plot with afew little twists that do make things more interesting, the main for me being the ending which is actually pretty good and shows Cage NOT being the world saving hero amazingly (as that is what you come to expect). Its a decent story all round which is easy to follow and very gripping, ranges from a kind of ghost story to hard hitting sci-fi as you finally see what happens. The acting is good from all, Cage being sensible and not going over the top with hair or movement haha but the special effects are really decent, the major events that take place during the film are quite brilliant looking and brutally realistic in afew places, make yr hairs stand on end I tell ya. Really decent film which just gets better as it reaches its climax, in my opinion, and from outta nowhere too as I hadn't heard of this until it was released, thumbs up (shame about the film title).

• Jens S

  
  It's hard to rate a film that starts out so interestingly and is really well done for the majority of its running time, but then decides to take a direction it can't handle just to basically screw everything up in the end. The premise is really enthralling: a school time… More
  It's hard to rate a film that starts out so interestingly and is really well done for the majority of its running time, but then decides to take a direction it can't handle just to basically screw everything up in the end. The premise is really enthralling: a school time capsule from the 50s reveals numbers predicting every major catastrophe of the last decades, with three numbers remaining... Nice Cage does well as father who's son seems to have a special connection to what's going on. The first of the last bunch of disasters, a plane crash, is wonderfully disturbing and offers excellent special effects. Sadly, the film loses his direction shortly after that, adding Christian motifs and a really silly solution, that even may have worked if handled differently. As it is, the ultimate chaos among humanity is filmed really well, but the final shot is cheesy beyond belief. And what the hell is it with the bunnies? Pity about the wasted second half, even if the majority of the film remains entertaining and well done.

• Wahida K

  
  Well Mr.Cage it is time to quit. I expected a disaster, but it was entertaining. Well a tiny bit of lack in acting and plot. It is such a shame Hollywood running out of Ideas.

• Brad W

  
  Knowing was a horrible movie, mostly because terrible stuff happened in it. First of all, Nicolas Cage was pretty good in this, espically if you compare it to other movies that hes done lately, but it still felt flat. The concept was cool, but the story was cliche and boring at many… More
  Knowing was a horrible movie, mostly because terrible stuff happened in it. First of all, Nicolas Cage was pretty good in this, espically if you compare it to other movies that hes done lately, but it still felt flat. The concept was cool, but the story was cliche and boring at many times. It had also many stupid and weird moments. The cinematography in this movie is gorcious. The effects were really well doned also, even if it had some sketchy moments. Overall this movie was bad, but had strongpoints.

• Kase V

  
  Although very visually striking, a bad plot and an even worse ending spoil any entertainment the film could've provided. A few disastrous scenes (the plane and a train) is the only reason to see this movie.

• Alexander W

  
  Nic Cage loves to be set on fire. His role in the film is just as successful as many of his films you have seen him in recently and the films story was not what I expected at all, but it was not hard to follow the predictable but enjoyable storyline. The special effects were inventive… More
  Nic Cage loves to be set on fire. His role in the film is just as successful as many of his films you have seen him in recently and the films story was not what I expected at all, but it was not hard to follow the predictable but enjoyable storyline. The special effects were inventive and looked really awesome.

• Richard C

  
  Seeing this again I hated it even more. This movie is just stupid. Its also really boring. The movie has an interesting plot though. The movie is just silly and boring and too long. Grade: C-

• Anthony L

  
  I defy anyone not to slap their foreheads and shout doh when reaching the conclusion of this film. Alex Proyas is better than this isn't he? The Crow and Dark City are beautiful films, I, Robot isn't great but visually it's good, style-wise, he's a great director!… More
  I defy anyone not to slap their foreheads and shout doh when reaching the conclusion of this film. Alex Proyas is better than this isn't he? The Crow and Dark City are beautiful films, I, Robot isn't great but visually it's good, style-wise, he's a great director! In Knowing, only the Special effects impress, and even then they either go on too long (quite gratuitously so) or are completely ridiculous it's hard to appreciate them. For every moment you get goosebumps, there are five moments you want to throw something at the screen in frustration. I think the story could have been great, maybe, but the execution of this film destroys anything of worth pretty quickly. I've also come to the conclusion that Nic Cage is only good when he is led by a great director, something that doesn't happen very often these days!

• Matt G

  
  I had incredibly low expectations for this movie, and their was one reason for that: Nicolas Cage. He's such a terrible actor. The whole movie is stupid. Spoiler Alert: Everyone dies in the end except for Nic's kids. Grade: F

• paul s

  
  If only some alien voices had whispered to me not to waste my time on this overly self important, stiltifyingly obvious piece of ruined celuloid, I could have spent the time contemplating the only interesting issue the film brought into play: determinism vs random chance. Here we… More
  If only some alien voices had whispered to me not to waste my time on this overly self important, stiltifyingly obvious piece of ruined celuloid, I could have spent the time contemplating the only interesting issue the film brought into play: determinism vs random chance. Here we start out with an interesting beginning; a new grammer school, circa 1959, has the students draw pictures of what they think things will be like 50 years into the future when a time capsule that they are planning on burying will be unearthed. One young girl instead draws a series of numbers, which get placed into the time capsule anyway (first leap of faith and questionable logic - but don't worry, there's many more to come). Flash forward 50 years to Nicky Cage (whose acting I believe has become almost a parody of itself) who is an MIT professor (read: real smart guy) living with his young son and struggling with the recent loss of his wife in a fire. We are introduced in a scene where the little brat sasses back to his dad, using phrases way too sophisticated for an 8 year old (hmm, maybe he's a pod person, taken over by aliens - oops, wrong movie). From here we move to MIT where Cage ruminates whether there is a grand theme to everything, or if we're all just molecules bumping into one another and things only happen by random chance (the right molecule bumps into the right molecule and voila, life happens). This is cool stuff and gives hope that the film will not slide down the slippery slope into just another oddball sci-fi type flick... said hope not only gets dashed on the rocks of ill-logic, but then stomped on, torn apart and spit at. The film attempts to build on the question of randomness vs determinism when we discover that Cage's kid goes to the same school and wow, hold on to your hats, it's been 50 years!!!!! so the time capsule is going to be unearthed. All the pictures, placed in envelopes within the capsule, will be given to the current students for a day (seems odd, why only a day, etc?). Of course the page with all the numbers is given to Cage's son... and then things really start to unravel. Through a series of absurdities, brainiac Cage (never thought you'd see those two words together now did ya?) unravels the mystery - the little girl was predicting the dates and number of deaths in disasters that were in her future. Cage tries to hunt down the young girl (who would now be in her 50's) but ends up with her 30 something daughter (and granddaughter who is Cage's son's age)instead. Now the slippery slope starts gaining speed, like a snowball that becomes an avalanche, and the film falls into cliche and badly written convention as Cage the brainiac turns into Cage the action hero... maybe he thought he was doing another National Treasure film. Remember on the original Star Trek that whenever Kirk and Co. beamed down to a planet the first order of business was to split up, so that some poor security guy gets killed (the heck with safety in numbers... maybe they'd forgotten that axiom in the 26th century). Well, for some really absurd reasons, that is exactly what happens in Knowing. Not once, not twice, but over and over - as if the damned woman (and what a laughingly bad performance in what I hope will be Rose Byrnes' last role) has a death wish, or thinks she is somehow smarter than an MIT professor. But of course, all the split ups lead to harrowing car chases "I'll save ya" kind of stuff that is totally over the top melodrama. She actually utters at one point "we've got to save the children" - ouch!!!!! Just when you think the film couldn't get any worse... it does; throwing in a goofball deux ex machina (guided by a set of rules that makes no sense either). The final scenes are gratutious, silly, and totally devoid of all the gravitude the filmmakers had supposedly intended. The CGI scenes were superflous, made, I imagine, only to spice up the trailer, as they really didn't add anything to the story (and that's saying a lot in this case). Ebert gave this steaming pile 4 stars - he must have been heavily medicated that day. I've read comic books with better story lines than this.

• xGary X

  
  A time capsule is opened after 50 years and seems to contain predictions about every catastrophe that has happened in the world over the time it has been underground. It has always disturbed me how a lot of these hokey conspiracy chillers often seem to contain an underlying… More
  A time capsule is opened after 50 years and seems to contain predictions about every catastrophe that has happened in the world over the time it has been underground. It has always disturbed me how a lot of these hokey conspiracy chillers often seem to contain an underlying "stealth" agenda that depicts modern science as a load of quackery unable to grasp the "truth" contained within a 2000 year old book of contradictory fairy tales and gibberish, and atheism in particular as " just a phase" undergone by misguided buffoons who are sulking about losing a wife/child/cocker spaniel/favourite budgie. That aside, Knowing is actually a decently made supernatural thriller containing some initially intriguing hooks, atmospheric visuals and appropriately spectacular ID4 style destruction. The children managed to be bearable and love or loathe him, Nic Cage is Nic Cage. All of that is really rather unimportant though, because all of these "twist" based one idea stories live or die by their initial concepts and if they're not good enough, the entire thing is built on quicksand. Without wanting to give away the "big surprise" ending, I could point out that this film's plot is virtually identical to that of the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, so anyone who has seen that doesn't need it spelt out ot them. To those who haven't: L-A-M-E. Worse than The Happening.

• Jason L

  
  Though Knowing contains fantastic visuals and a couple of interesting scenes, weak action and a -barely there plot makes the Knowing fall flat.

• Ken S

  
  Again Ebert with the 4 STARS!! Really this movie is very silly and mostly cliche.

• Jay H

  
  Dreadful. Absolutely awful.

• Red L

  
  Knowing is a pretty good science fiction movie. Perhaps the reasons behind the numbers is a bit illogical. If some super-aliens is going to save mankind from extinction by saving a few humans, they don't have to go through all the troubles of a 50 year time capsule and poor… More
  Knowing is a pretty good science fiction movie. Perhaps the reasons behind the numbers is a bit illogical. If some super-aliens is going to save mankind from extinction by saving a few humans, they don't have to go through all the troubles of a 50 year time capsule and poor old Nicolas Cage figuring out cryptic numbers, but hey - then it would not be an interesting movie, would it?

• Conner R

  
  A big risk was taken with this, but it just didn't work for me. It was a little too odd and nowhere near as effective as it could have been under different circumstances. Nicolas Cage was fine for what the movie demanded and was probably the part that kept me entertained the… More
  A big risk was taken with this, but it just didn't work for me. It was a little too odd and nowhere near as effective as it could have been under different circumstances. Nicolas Cage was fine for what the movie demanded and was probably the part that kept me entertained the whole way through. The conspiracy aspect is for the most part well done too, but it falls flat towards the end.

• Jani H

  
  "The numbers are the key to everything." First off I gotta start by saying that Alex Proyas has made several good movies in the past. 'The Crow', 'Dark City' and 'I, Robot'. Especially the middle one of these is a favourite of mine.… More
  "The numbers are the key to everything." First off I gotta start by saying that Alex Proyas has made several good movies in the past. 'The Crow', 'Dark City' and 'I, Robot'. Especially the middle one of these is a favourite of mine. 'Knowing' ain't and will never be... 'Knowing' starts off very slowly but in an interesting way. Back in the 50's, a group of elementary kids draw pictures about their vision of the future and put them inside a "time capsule", which is to be opened 50 years later. One kid, who hears voices inside her head writes only numbers... Nic Cage plays a professor called John Koestler. He's a widow with a kid. The kid happens to get the paper with the numbers and after that starts hearing voices and seeing people in the woods... Basically after this, a film that could've been good, fails to deliver. Too many plotholes and a pace that is way too slow. And bad acting. Why does Cage keep doing these roles? 'Knowing' reminds me of an episode of 'X-files'. Extraterrestial creatures (oops, sorry, a SPOILER), intelligent people who just happen to figure the whole thing out in a second... There like zero suspense or drama in the movie. Nic Cage sleepwalks throughout the movie, the characters aren't interesting at all... Way too many negative aspects to be told. But what's great about this film? The disaster scenes. Truly great visuals, especially the ending where EE meets the end. EE, you say? I gave one spoiler already out but not this one. Nope. 'Knowing' had potential, a great director but sad to say I was very disappointed with the outcome of the movie. I can't really recommend this movie but some of you will probably see it any ways. Enjoy? "What happens when the numbers run out?"

• KJ P

  
  I thought it was amzing up until the last ten minutes, and then I was not liking it, but then when the movies last few seconds had something else to show off, then I was satisfied! I was good!

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