Knowing (2009)

Film of 2012 #66


Starring Nicholas Cage this film has received some hate based upon the ridiculous premise of a sheet of paper left in a time capsule for 50 years. Nicholas Cage finds it and figures out what the numbers are. I went in with pretty low expectations and they were not met at all by this nonsense. You have Nicholas Cage as a single father of a son who is deaf. He is a University lecturer who at the start has some different thoughts that he puts to his students but I think he is predisposed to believe these numbers.


His wife died and he is struggling to cope with this, it shows him drinking a lot and it is actually one night when he is drunk that he looks at the numbers and it just happens to be the September 11th date and the number of deaths. The premise itself is fine for me I understand to look at this sort of film it is really the execution that causes me a problem. He happens to be at the point when a plane crashes and the effects are really quite spectacular and good. But he happens to be a the right spot at the right time for the disaster, would have made more sense if his son had directed him there or if he had realised the other numbers were locations.


Overall this is a disappointment, an interesting idea done badly, I think they could have made more of the ending and for such a big story they focused incorrectly on the smaller story with the big ending and it just did not work for me. This is a 1 star film that you should avoid, the plane crash is actually really good CGI but is not actually worth sitting through the whole film for.

National Treasure (2004)

After watching the sequel to this film I decided to revisit the original with Nicholas Cage, I seem to have watched a lot of his films recently, however i am not enjoying as many of them as i thought I would. This is a rip-off of Indiana Jones without the Nazi's instead you have Sean Bean who is funding the search for a treasure. He has unlimited resources but wants more in finding the treasure.

Okay so there are many holes in the plot there are many scenes of unbelievably silly things but I cannot help but like this film, there is a level of enjoyment from it that makes me smile and you switch your brain off at the door and enjoy the shenanigans as they happen.

This is enjoyable fluff worth watching if you like that sort of thing, only worth 3 stars from me though.

Drive Angry 3D (2011)

This film was another pay check for Nicholas Cage I went to see it with very little information thinking that it would be a good chance for them to use the 3D in an action/gory type way. The performance from William Fichtner as the accountant was excellent, really enjoyable and the direction they gave Hell was interesting and good idea.

However overall the film made very little to no sense it was a series of set pieces with a thin watery story running through it. There was the opportunity for an interesting twists and story line but I think this film was cut and adjusted or just very poor and only got released because Nicholas Cage was in it and they knew there was an audience that would go and see it because of that.

I cannot recommend this film to anyone, if you want to know the interesting thing they do with Hell, ask me and I will let you know. But avoid this film, the 3D is not even good enough to justify seeing the film. 1 Star from me on this one.

Season of the Witch (2011)

So I saw this film on a Sunday afternoon when the GF was working, what a serious disappointment, I saw the trailer afterwards so went in thinking, Girl suspected of being a witch, everybody wants her dead, along comes Nic Cage and sees the good in her. Well if you saw the trailer it destroys that illusion straight away and half way through the film without the trailer you know something is going on.

It is a really simple story that has 10 minutes of violent set up that does nothing to develop the lead roles and it is a total church bashing without any redemption for the main characters in defence of what they do. There are couple of interesting points in the story but based on how the film was sold to me the way the film went made no sense whatsoever. I came away from the film thinking, really what was the point.

Nicholas Cage seems to have decided he is going to do as many films as possible just to get paid, he phoned this performance in and was nothing special the whole film is not worth seeing so a 1 star stay away from this piece of nonsense.

Kick-Ass (2010) (2nd Review)

This was a second watch for me after I saw this film in the cinema, this was the first film in the cinema that I had laughed out loud for a very long time, and because I saw it opening weekend it was a mutual experience as the packed cinema all laughed.

So watching it on DVD I was unsure if I would enjoy it as much as I had in the cinema, I had no worries after starting to watch it, while alone I was not inclined to laugh out loud but I had a smile on my face at all of the jokes and comical scenes.

When Kick-Ass 2 comes out I will be at the cinema to see that opening weekend as this film was fantastic, it get 5 stars as it is a film that I will watch again and again. Which is a step up from my original review which you can see here.

Kick-Ass (2010)

Format - Cinema
Date - 2 April 2010
Director - Matthew Vaughn

Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan with a few friends and who lives alone with his father. His life is not very difficult and his personal trials not that overwhelming. However, one day he makes the simple decision to become a super-hero even though he has no powers or training. Written by Daniel J. Leary

Thanks to IMdb for the plot summary.

The film starts with the premise of why has nobody ever tried to be a super hero before? You then have Dave who gets a wet suit some baton's and becomes a costumed hero. You have him meeting other costumed heroes and facing off against the big crime boss.

I loved this film it is comedy gold in some parts, a lot of which you get from the trailer but there is a couple of massive laughs that rolled around the cinema which does not happen very often when I go to the cinema. The characters were excellent I did not know going in that this film was based upon a comic book however it worked really well as a film.

The acting in this film was top notch from Aaron Johnson who took the title role, now I am not overly fond of films that go with the geeky teenage boy in the lead role but he plays it very well from his interactions with his friends and the hot girl in the film. Nicholas Cage plays Big Daddy and this would normally have been the lead role but the story is approached at from Kick-Ass point of view. He is almost a cameo but plays it quite well, I do think that a different actor would have got it better as all I thought was oooh Nic Cage and he gets to play a super hero. The best turn for me came from Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl she was sassy and well suited for the part, I have to say that her performance in this does give me hope for the upcoming remake of "Let the Right One In".

I would totally recommend this film to everybody, the only warning I would give is that there is some pretty extreme violence in it and some strong language but I think everybody is aware of that from the attention it has been getting.

I would give this 4/5 Kick-Ass costumed heroes.

Let me know if you have seen it and your thoughts on it, any feedback on my thoughts greatly appreciated.