|
New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.
Home | Archive | About | Blog | Lists | Links | E-mail me | Sign up for my weekly newsletter! | Safe House *** The Vow **1/2 The Innkeepers ***1/2 The Woman in Black *** The Grey *** Man on a Ledge *** Underworld Awakening ** Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos *** Haywire *** Beauty and the Beast **** Contraband *** The Divide * Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy **** The Devil Inside ** The Iron Lady ** A Separation *** Pariah ***1/2 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close *** The Darkest Hour ** More Essential Killing Lady and the Tramp La Jetée Sans Soleil Story of a Love Affair 3 A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 2011: The Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays More Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards Interview: Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender Interview: Simon Curtis Interview: Werner Herzog Interview: John Cho Interview: Roland Emmerich Interview: Stephen Bishop on Moneyball Interview: Nick Swardson Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson Interview: Lone Scherfig Interview: Jesse Eisenberg & Aziz Ansari Interview: Wayne Wang Interview: Andre Ovredal on 'Trollhunter' Interview: Ewan McGregor & Mike Mills Interview: Kelly Reichardt (Examiner link) The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival - 2011 Coverage Interview: Emma Roberts Rainn Wilson & James Gunn (Examiner link) Interview: Tom McCarthy Interview: Abigail Breslin (Examiner link) 2010: The Year's Best Films 2010: The Year's Best DVDs & Blu-Rays Interview: Sofia Coppola Interview: George A. Romero The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009 My Top 100 Films [Updated] My Top 60 Directors [Updated] Christmas Movies Essential Halloween & Horror Movies Cult Movies Actress Interview Gallery More Features and Interviews Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis More Books Reviews A-C Reviews D-F Reviews G-J Reviews K-M Reviews N-Q Reviews R-T Reviews U-Z The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!
© 1997-2012 Combustible Celluloid |
Knowing (2009)Rating: 2 Stars (out of 4)Numbers RacketBy Jeffrey M. Anderson
The movie starts in 1959, when the students of an elementary school decide to bury a time capsule filled with drawings. One creepy little girl, Lucinda (Lara Robinson), covers her page with numbers. Fifty years later, Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) gets the paper and his father, John (Cage), discovers it. John happens to be a professor, and he notices that some of the numbers coincide with 9/11 and the number of people killed. He starts searching and discovers that all the numbers point to the dates of disasters and the exact number of victims. Of course, at the end of the list, there are three disasters left yet to occur, and the final one looks to be very, very big. So John goes running off to the first two disasters, thinking he can somehow help. He also tracks down Lucinda's grown daughter, Diana (Rose Byrne) and little granddaughter (also played by Lara Robinson), in the hopes that they can help. They provide a few more clues, but perhaps even more dead ends. Early in the film, John lectures his appreciative class on the difference between order and coincidence. Is there some purpose to life, or is everything just a series of random accidents? I think it's hugely problematic to make movies around the latter idea, since so many movies depend on achieving goals, making discoveries, learning lessons or at the very least finding beauty, hope or faith -- even more so if you're making a "big, dumb" movie. If a brave filmmaker decides to try something in this vein, it would be a great deal more effective to make one of those "small, smart" movies. It's too bad that, whatever numbers lined up to allow Proyas to make Dark City did not do so again. Also available on Blu-Ray. With: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, D.G. Maloney, Lara Robinson, Nadia Townsend, Alan Hopgood, Adrienne Pickering, Joshua Long, Danielle Carter, Alethea McGrath, David Lennie, Tamara Donnellan, Travis Waite, Ben Mendelsohn |
| Home |
New Movies |
New DVDs & Blu-Ray |
Features |
News |
Search Reviews |
Classic Movies |
Film Books |
Gallery |
Links |
About |
Contact |