Knowing

Directed by: Alex Proyas

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury

Plot: A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.

Source: imdb.com

Review:

This is going to be a tough review, mainly because even with all the flaws I found in this movie, I still throughly enjoyed it. First of all, Nicolas Cage is great, not his best performance by any means (and it will be hard for him to touch his Lord of War performance) but it was good. Anyways, this movie centers around these numbers, and how they predict all these major catastrophic events that have or are going to happen. As Cage trys to figure out what the numbers all mean, events happen just as they numbers say they will. These catastrophic events are played out very well, and are in fact the best parts of the movie. They're shocking to say the least, even though the special effects aren't the greatest, they still show terrible events happening right before your eyes and its pretty intense stuff. One scene in particular reminded oh too well of 9/11 in fact.

As the movie goes on, I became increasingly more excited to find out how this story would eventually play out, then, the movie almost does a complete 180. I won't spoil it for you but its a pretty big twist, and in all honesty its not the twist you're hoping for, at least it wasn't the one I was looking for. Even though I am a big sci-fi buff, I sort of questioned the direction the movie goes. I understand the meaning and all that, it just wasn't what I was expecting at all or what I was looking for.

I should also point out that the child actors in the film, are terrible. Like, I know most child actors aren't good ever, but usually they have smaller roles and don't bring down the movie with their awful performances. However, the son in this movie has a really big part, and by the end you're rolling your eyes at the unconvincing performance he gives. Also, I'm a big Rose Bryne fan, I loved her in Troy, 28 Weeks Later, the TV show Damages, and especially in Sunshine. She is basically one of my favorite actresses. With that being said, I felt her performance in this was sub par. She was good up until she went into panic mode, and then she just sort of turned into an annoying b*tch.

So all in all, Knowing is good and enjoyable. However, I left the theater feeling a little unsatisfied. Whether I'd recommend this movie to you or not really all depends on you. I saw the movie with two others, and we all enjoyed it, but all of us felt about the same regarding the ending. If you like the premise and idea of the movie, or you're just a Nic Cage fan in general, I say see it. If not, save your money for something else.

My Rating: 2 1/2 Stars

I can see down your shirt!

One thing you'll learn (or haved learned) about college is you have a lot of free time; which, can be spent doing a number of things. Now as fun as getting piss drunk can be, I reserve the weekend for doing that, leaving me five days in which only 3 hours are spent in school. So, I like to play a lot of video games during the week. After finishing Dead Space and not wanting to beat Fallout 3 just yet, I decided I needed to search out a new game to go through. I brought up the suggestion of Assassin's Creed to my suitemates and I received the following responses:

"That game is f*cking awesome."

"Dude, thats the best game I've ever played on the 360."

"That sh!t is dope."

Guess I missed something. All I've heard is Assassin's Creed is fun, but too short and repetitive. So far, none of that is true. After getting it used for 17 bucks, I've found the game not fun, but really fun, not short (if you reach every high point and save every person), and too be honest, not that repetitive. I mean yeah, you are doing the same thing 9 times, but repetitive is only bad if doing the same thing over and over again is boring, and I can think of a number of other "repetitive" things that don't get boring (having sex, watching your favorite youtube videos, posting on Gamespot message boards). So basically what I'm saying is that Assassin's Creed has been real pleasant surprise. I expected a good game, but I've been enjoying it much more than I thought I would. And the whole, "memory used to go back in time thing", thats pretty cool.

There's something behind me, isn't there?

I have to give EA credit, they finally made a REALLY good game. They must of hired some devs who thought to themselves, "You know, I'd like to actually make a really good game instead of the mediocre crap that this company is known for." Whatever their reason, they nailed it straight on the head with Dead Space. What an amazing gaming experience, from the opening sequence (which to me, is one of the most beautiful and haunting scenes in video game history) to the climactic finale Dead Space delivers one of the most rewarding gaming experiences of 2008.

Resident Evil and Silent Hill had their time, it's Dead Space's time to shine.