Review: "Knowing" the Movie is a Train Wreck

I'll say thanks but no thanks next time to the Observer when they offer me preview tickets to a new movie. The people that newspaper hired to manage our admission to the Regal Theater on 42nd Street were rude and disorganized. That was a totally apt foreshadowing of the movie we were going to see: "Knowing" with Nicolas Cage.

I'm not a Cage hater, although some of my friends are. And the trailer for the film tantalizes with its disasters, numerology and warm fuzzy father-son scenes. The movie itself turned out to be rude and disorganized, a downer with a seriously flawed plot and a message of utter hopelessness for the human race. As the punchline goes, "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was your night at the theater?"

Aptly, the highlight of the film for most people was the overwhelming NYC subway train crash disaster scene of mayhem and death. Some rated the Boston plane crash scene more gruesome and real. The gratuitous fiery forest fantasy scene of burning animals and the general end-of-the-earth destruction of New York City ranked high on the sadism rating charts. The bizarre Garden of Eden post script stood out as one of the most puzzling codas in artistic history. Cage's confused professor character won over no hearts in the theater - who wants to identify with a recently widowed misanthropic alcoholic academic?

There are plenty more reasons not to like this train wreck of a Hollywood feature film. No doubt, the box office for the disaster movie will be huge and come next year some special effects award nominations will be offered to it. I'm sorry I only have two thumbs to turn down on this one.