Movie | The Mancunian Candidate - Web Design, Development and Digital Product Strategist

Posts Tagged ‘movie’

Knowing This Might Save Two Hours of Your Life

// April 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // General, Movies

Perhaps it was naive of me to expect a great experience from a recent Nicolas Cage movie but I recently had a couple of spare hours and decided to nip across the road to the cinema and watch “Knowing“. Being something of a ironic Nic Cage fan, I thought it would be worth seeing. Especially as I am something of a sucker for Sci-Fi blockbusters like Minority Report and (from the same director) I-Robot.

Anyway barely ten minutes of the movie had passed before the mistake of seeing this movie hit me in the face with a nauseating schmaltzy scene involving Cage and his on-screen son. I pretty much got up there and then it was that sickly. If you have a strong stomach, you can see a poor quality (not by my hand) clip below.

Now, if you had the guts to watch that I think you will know what I am talking about. Basically the audience is being subjected to an intoxicating level of condescension and unnecessary (in a film like this) family cheese. The makers are assuming that you are too thick to have realised already that Cage’s wife has passed away leaving him in an agnostic state, believing only in science, whereas his young nipper still has his faith and is pissed at his Dad because he doesn’t really buy-it anymore. That is without even mentioning the ridiculous and unlikely special handshake.

I’ll not go into the significance of the spiritual undertones of the scene in case you still feel compelled to watch the movie (admittedly the gratuitous special effects are worthy of a watch). But rest assured the rest of the movie continues to feed you with the cinematic equivalent of MacDonalds-esque stupid-food. At every turn and plot development you have to suffer redundant plot devices that merely add to the running time rather than story development.

It all ends with a somewhat preposterous conclusion that “cleverly” [sic] attempts to be scientific whilst also catering for those of a religious disposition. I gather it is supposed to leave you in a state of wonder over which of the two is the correct moral compass for your life, instead I was merely left wondering how I was going to keep my lunch down.

Saying all that though, if you do like the odd Hollywood effects-fest and a bit of sci-fi then please don’t let me put you off watching it. It’s not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, if you can handle the cheese then you might enjoy it.