Knowing
(2009/Summit Blu-ray/DVD)
Picture:
B-/C Sound: B/B- Extras: D Film: D
I like
Nicolas Cage and Director Alex Proyas, especially with Proyas coming off of I, Robot and Garage Days, so I hoped Cage would have his best film since Ghost Rider, but we landed up with
Knowing instead and it is one of those films that starts out with some real
promise. Then, slowly, sadly, the film
falls apart when it goes from interesting, to pushing its lick, to barely being
able to suspend disbelief to collapsing when it did not need to. Too bad, though it was a hit everywhere (even
on a limited basis in the U.S.), so someone enjoyed it.
However,
this critic was not one of them. Cage is
a single father whose son is the recipient of one of many letters in a time
capsule left there a half-century ago.
The specific letter is from a disturbed young lady (as we find out in
flashback), but it turns out she is being possessed. Then mysterious blond guys who don’t speak
show up, blasts of light occur and so do wild disasters. Cage tries to figure out the meaning of the
letter, which is a secret code.
Unfortunately,
the screenplay (including Ryne Douglas Pearson, who wrote the especially awful
and worst-than-this Mercury Rising)
is clueless about what it is doing and that leaves Cage with some
unintentionally funny moments and a shell of a story that could have been so
much more. Rose Byrne turns up and that
is a plus, but she can’t save this either, all the way to the awful ending.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot on a 4K Redcode RAW HD Camera
and sadly, the limits on the Blu-ray show throughout with a surprising lack of
detail and other image flaws that disappoint.
The anamorphically enhanced DVD is even worse and is seriously image-challenged. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless sound
on the Blu-ray is better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 options in both formats,
with some good surrounds, but a soundfield that never totally works except when
the action kicks in. The Blu-ray is preferred
by default.
Extras
include two making of featurettes and an audio commentary by Proyas that shows
he was trying, but this simply got away from him and is his poorest feature in
a very long time.
- Nicholas Sheffo
