Nicolas Cage tries to get back on track with an intense sci-fi thriller that starts strong, but finishes with a fragmented and drawn out ending that is less than spectacular.

This movie doesn’t take long to establish its spookiness and brooding sense of impending danger on the audience… living up to its PG-13 rating, but some images like the gruesome firsthand accounts of the tragedies may be too intense that may even leave some adults with nightmares.

(Spoiler-free !!)

Two themes run through the movie, the title of “Knowing”… giving some hints throughout of what is really going on.  There is also a continual theme of “looking” – looking through things and at things with camera angles and moves and circles that the audience or the characters look through to see something.

The disaster motif is more real and believable than that of recent sci-fi/disaster flop remake “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (2008)… that was heavy on the effects and weak on the actual plot.

Nicolas Cage does pretty well as the overworked, overstressed, overprotective single widowed father taking care of his son… and trying to teach his students in the Astrophysics department of MIT.

His beliefs and feelings that life is random is challenged after finding a series of numbers written 50 years ago that seem to be predicting major tragedies.

Cage handles the material well, but his supporting cast is not as strong and while the kids have important parts to play, they are not as convincing as they need to be.  Cage does have a few scenes where he acts like the way he is often caricatured in that intense over-dramatized Cage acting style.

Rose Byrne as the female lead is the closest thing to support Cage has in this cast… with a strong performance, but limited screen time.  Her character Diana has one of the most memorable lines in the movie as she comes to grips with the movie’s premise and her own mortality: “we all die in the end, I don’t want to know what my future holds”.

The movie also throws irony at you that as they face the disaster, the children are more grown up than their parents give them credit for and this point is driven home as the scared parents crawl in bed with their kids.

THE BOTTOM LINE: (mild spoiler)

(more…)

REVISED SCORE…. I don’t do this very often, but in the 24 hours since writing this review, I have to revise my rating slightly… down a notch to 6.5… because as good as the acting was and the story was in the first 3/4 of the movie… the last 1/4 became predictable.. and all the tension and suspense that was built up in the first 3/4 of the movie all goes away as the scenes become predictable.

So I still say “SEE IT”, but I have to say its really just a 6.5 out of 10.

If you thought you had a wierd relationship with your neighbor, think again…. Samuel L. Jackson is the neighbor from HELL in this Thriller…

Its too bad that “Unthinkable” quickly pulled out of production in Grand Rapids and will soon be filming in Los Angeles, because we could have had Jackson in another intense role where he blurs the line between good and bad…. and he’s good at being bad in this latest movie “Lakeview Terrace”…

“Lakeview Terrace”

(2008) (rated PG-13 for intense thematic material, violence, sexuality, language and some drug references) (1 hr, 50 min)

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Ron Glass, Justin Chambers, Jay Hernandez

Genre: Drama/Thriller/Police

The Plot: An LAPD officer (Jackson) will stop at nothing to force out the interracial couple who just moved in next door.

MY TAKE (spoiler free):

Samuel L. Jackson is crazy… well, his character is (more…)

(RE-POSTING FROM 7/20/08)

“Funny Games” a seriously different kind of thriller

This is a different kind of thriller, it is non-traditional with a slower pacing that most viewers might find annoying, but it also gives you time to soak in what is going on in the scene.   “Funny Games” taps into raw emotion as the audience winces and agonizes through the story as the main characters try to escape their kidnappers.

 “Funny Games”

(2008) (rated: R for terror, violence and some language) (1 hr, 41 min)

Starring: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart

Genre: Thriller

The Plot: Two psychotic young men take a family hostage in their cabin.

(RE-POSTING FROM 6/22/08)

“The Happening”: freaky good

After two sub-par movies, M.Night Shyamalan returns with a solid suspense movie that plays right into our modern day cultural concerns about terrorism and government conspiracies !!!   “The Happening” doesn’t play around… its bold and right in your face with the opening scene… its graphic and violent and earns its “R” rating.

 “The Happening”

MY TAKE (no spoilers):  Unlike some movies of this genre where the director takes time to develop the main characters or “the evil” … “The Happening” wastes no time getting right to the event itself… the “good guys” are then brought in and their quest to figure out what is going on and why begins.

(RE-POSTING FROM 6/10/08)

“The Air I Breathe”: a great crime drama
 

“The Air I Breathe” is a gritty crime drama with non-stop action, solid acting, really good cinematography… and one of the most important things I need in a movie: great character development !!!

 “The Air I Breathe”

(2007) stars Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Emile Hirsch, Forest Whitaker, Kelly Hu

(Rated: R for violence, language and some sexual content/nudity)

The Plot: A drama based on an ancient Chinese proverb that breaks life down into four emotional cornerstones: happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love.