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Knowing |  | Actors: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy Used: $0.94
as of 7/29/2010 05:10 MDT details
You Save: $19.05 (95%)
New (47) Used (161) from $0.94
Rating:  338 reviews
Sales Rank: 3011
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Running Time: 121 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: SUMD66110365D
UPC: 025192031885
EAN: 0025192031885
ASIN: B001GCUO02
Theatrical Release Date: March 20, 2009
Release Date: July 7, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A TEACHER OPENS A TIME CAPSULE THAT HAS BEEN DUG UP AT HIS SON'E ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. IN IT ARE SOME CHILLING PREDICTIONS - SOME THAT HAVE ALREADY OCCURRED & OTHERS THAT ARE ABOUT TO - THAT LEAD HIM TO BELIEVE HIS FAMILY PLAYS A ROLE IN THE EVENTS THAT ARE ABOUT TO UNFOLD.
Amazon.com
Nicolas Cage stars in this largely unsatisfying science-fiction tale that begins as a taut and spooky story concerning psychic legacies and ends up falling back on Steven Spielberg's old, cosmic playbook for default explanations about weird phenomena. Cage stars as astrophysicist and widower John Koestler, whose young son attends a school where a 50-year-old time capsule is dug up and opened. Koestler's son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), is given an envelope from the capsule containing a sheet of paper inscribed with seemingly-random numbers. Koestler interprets groupings of the numbers as prophesies (made in 1959) of disasters leading up to a globally catastrophic event late in 2009. Moreover, some of the later tragedies involve him or members of his family, suggesting the paper was meant to fall into his and Caleb's hands. That’s not the only freaky thing drawing father and son in a direction they really don't want to go. Among other things, a quartet of mute strangers keeps showing up with a powerful interest in Caleb's whereabouts, and the daughter and granddaughter of the little girl who originally scribbled those numbers in 1959 are under the shadow of a separate prediction of doom. Everything goes swimmingly until it's time for director Alex Proyas (The Crow) to begin tying up all the strings, and cliches start falling like rain. On the plus side, Knowing includes a couple of breathtaking scenes of calamity, the most horrifying (and realistic) of which is a jet crash the likes of which has never been committed to film. --Tom Keogh
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 338
 Attempted remake of "Taken" July 2, 2010
Michael A. Scheurich (California)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Although I have the greatest respect for Nicolas Cage and the philosophical concepts in this movie stir the imagination the attempt of the producers to cash in on the blockbuster movie "Taken" made this movie more of a comedy. Cage plays the part of an atheist MIT physics professor who believes the events of the universe are simply random accidents. But as all anti-atheist movies goes he discovers god at the end of the movie. This film tries to duplicate the emotional scenes in 'Taken' where the parents of the child being taken by god like aliens (who are wiping all life from the planet to start over with new life on another planet which is enviromentally pure.) Cage grapples with the aliens begging them not to take his son who also begs to stay with his dad (sound familiar?) After his son is taken the professor is found next morning still upset and lying in the spot where his son was taken (another hammed up scene from Taken). He then meets with his father and girlfriend where they all rejoice to the realization they will meet again in heaven. This type of movie where an atheist discovers god seems to be a favorite ploy used by religions in their attempts to convince the public that god exists.
Cross a really expensive episode of "Numb3rs" with a fist fight in a world religions and myths bookstore, and you have Knowing June 25, 2010
ninjasuperstar (Iowa)
Whenever Roger Ebert makes an extraordinary claim ("Knowing is among the best science-fiction films I've seen") about something so mediocre and hackneyed as this film, I question the great Answer Man's remaining powers. I generally agree with him, but Ebert is dead wrong about this entertaining but ludicrous film.
The movie is a mash of science fiction and religious ideas about the end of the earth: a rather transparent numerology, the foresight of seers, the receptiveness of chosen ones, an advanced alien race that communicates telepathically, Armageddon, and a bit of the unexplained (those stupid pebbles). How many times and in how many ways have these plagiarized ideas and character types been arranged?
Further, the director, Alex Proyas, cannibalizes his own material--the alien race from Dark City--which is an excellent sci-fi noir. Proyas was also successful with The Crow, the first movie to actually look like a graphic novel in motion, as opposed to a film. What separates Proyas' successes from Knowing is that Knowing doesn't have an interesting style and it doesn't stick to one set of myths (hence the mashing). Another failure is that Knowing attempts to make science fiction more like science, which isn't the case at all. And is the audience to believe that an MIT professor has fifth-grade dialogues about the composition of the sun with his students? Really?
As much as I think the film is dumb, it is entertaining, and that accounts for something. Nicolas Cage (who seems to be channeling his character Ben Sanderson from Leaving Las Vegas) is intense and engaging as professor John Koestler. Rose Byrne also gives an excellent performance as Diana Wayland. To say much more would reveal too much of the film.
Rent this if you like disaster sci-fi and want to be entertained, but don't expect to learn anything you don't already know.
 Pop Ezekiel June 16, 2010
Thunderhead22 (Decatur, GA USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is like an episode of the X Files (which in the end also had some quasi-religious elements). I give it 2 stars for trying. I didn't totally hate it, but it certainly did contain lots of been-there-done-that moments. I know they were alluding to Ezekiel's UFO-esque "wheel" at the end, but I'm a bit tired of the "glorious awe" effect. I agree with many of the previous posters who pointed out that the whole numbers thing, while interesting as a plot device, was totally pointless. That information didn't empower anybody to do anything. It wasn't even needed to get the kids to the location at the end (the aliens took care of that). A major plot thread that goes nowhere is a bad sign. BTW, it's possible to view this in a totally non-religious context. Yes, Cage sort of get's the spirit and reluctantly reconciles with his dad, but even though an afterlife is alluded to in those emotional moments, there is never a shred of evidence thrust upon the viewer (thankfully, as far as I'm concerned).
Pass on this one June 15, 2010
Rod Stephens (Boulder, CO United States)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Just not a great movie. The characters' actions and motivations often don't really make sense and the overall message is about as subtle as a sledge hammer. There are too many good movies (and books) out there to waste an evening on this one.
 Re Recent Apocalyptic Themed Flicks, Knowing Is The Pick O' The Litter June 8, 2010
Hand of Doom (The Wonderful World of Colonized Minds)
Daunting, creepy film that's an interesting concoction of speculative fantasy, spirituality and father/son relationships.
Unlike many apocalyptic stories, Knowing doesn't go for the rooty-toot, Feel Good 'close call' jive that lets our five sensory world off the hook at the last minute, and instead has the courage of its convictions to actually depict a cataclysmic event that wipes all human life from the planet as 'angels,' ominous and ambiguous, stealthily manifest to guide a chosen few to ensure humanity's perpetuation.
Knowing may appeal to select free thinkers, and those who prefer their science fiction grounded in human matters, but tends to raise the ire of bellicose Know It Alls, who, from what I gather, love to hate the ideas this film traverses (and wisely avoids overwhelming the viewer by devling too deeply into). A taut, atmospheric tale of dire synchronous events.
Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. ~ 1 CORINTHIANS 13:8
Showing reviews 1-5 of 338
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