Knowing 2009

Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies: Things started to fall off of the deep end very quickly. Read more

Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune: Knowing has the evangelical fervor of a movie that feels as if it were made during W's first term. Which is to say, Knowing is as potent a slice of disaster porn as Left Behind. It dabbles in faith and doubt and has no patience for f Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: The dialogue is sci-fi standard-issue, composer Marco Beltrami shamelessly cribs from Bernard Herrmann, and wispy Rose Byrne barely registers as Cage's ally. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: A little levity, applied at key moments, might have helped it make its points and lend plausibility to its characters. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Proyas remains a skilled director of mood and spectacle, but a striking look and a handful of remarkable setpieces -- look out for that plane -- can't elevate what's ultimately a silly movie with a queasy subtext. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It's all very creepy, satisfyingly so. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's a Nicolas Cage movie, so, admit it, you're expecting crazy. You have no idea. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: For me, it doesn't quite work; still I'm glad he took the risk. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: If you want to know how inept the movie is...well, it's so inept that you may wish you were watching an M. Night Shyamalan version of the very same premise. Read more

Cole Haddon, Film.com: Despite the concept, despite the relatively solid and even exciting first half, the last fifteen minutes of Knowing left me squirming in my seat. Seriously. Read more

Jim Ridley, L.A. Weekly: [A] lugubrious thriller. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: An uneasy blending of sci-fi and religion, fate and faith -- the same mish-mash that has bedeviled most of M. Night Shyamalan's recent movies, and leaves this film leaden with self-importance. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Was there a prediction of this laughably bad movie in The Mothman Prophecies? Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The movie begins shameless, grows stupid and winds up silly. If the ending had less of the air of a crackpot religion and more pretentiousness, you could almost call it Shyamalanish. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The dizziness of it all might not have been so obvious had we not had a long prologue and a finale that climaxes with two or three anti-climaxes, a couple of them laugh-out-loud silly. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A weird and gloomy existential thriller. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Knowing is a classic case of a movie that is crammed with interesting ideas but is unable to conceptualize them in a compelling fashion. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Knowing is among the best science-fiction films I've seen -- frightening, suspenseful, intelligent and, when it needs to be, rather awesome. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: If Alex Proyas' Knowing were reasonably entertaining -- instead of just dour, pointless and tedious -- it would be a camp classic. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: It's pretty much impossible to take the rest of a film seriously once you've seen a flaming moose running toward the camera in slow motion. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The resolution of the mysterious visitors' mission and John's crisis of faith feels more like an excuse to stage some hellacious cataclysms than the product of a genuine belief in anything at all. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Ultimately the one who gets burned is Cage, a 1996 Oscar winner whose once-promising career is boarding the mother ship for oblivion. Read more

Kamal Al-Solaylee, Globe and Mail: Its breathlessness and permanent state of confusion make you long for the assured touch of M. Night Shyamalan. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: The frustrating thing about Knowing is the story is worthy. But director Proyas tries to cram too much in, as if the tricks and effects wizardry are all that really counts. They aren't. Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: Mixing Spielbergian child-like wonder, disaster movie spectacle and the cod-religious silliness of M Night Shyamalan's 'Signs'. The premise is compelling, but the execution is over-cooked. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: If you're of a mind to believe a dreary and far-fetched thriller about numerology-crazed alien life forms, then you may find the movie mildly diverting. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: A not-bad supernatural-tinged sci-fier that has more on its mind than the run-of-the-mill effects-driven extravaganza. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The narrative corner into which this movie, directed by Alex Proyas, paints itself is a simultaneously silly and morbidly depressing one. Read more