Knowing

Nicholas Cage plays a professor who digs up a mysterious time capsule which can apparently predict the future. Does the capsule predict if the film will get decent reviews?

Who's in it? Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne

What's it about? A teacher opens a time capsule containing some chilling predictions  that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events about to unfold.

What type of film is it? Sci-fi Thriller

Is it any good? Sadly not very, no. What starts out as a tense and interesting movie slowly becomes an end of the world sci-fi mess that is too long and not exciting enough. The idea is a good one – child somehow predicts disasters including locations and the number of victims that gradually really happen… and some that have yet to. Cue lots of maths and science muttering from lecturer Nicolas, mysterious strangers, voices only some people can hear, and weird goings on. There are two very impressive disaster scenes and a third final special effects showcase but the rest of the film is somewhat empty. I like Nicolas Cage and I’m a fan of his movies (Next and Bangkok Dangerous not included) but this kind of doesn’t deserve his acting muscle. It’s made by the same guy behind I, Robot, Dark City and The Crow but Knowing feels like he gave up about three quarters of the way through. It's not as bad as some critics are making out, but it's not all that much better either.

Marks out of 10? 4