Release Date:
03/20/2009
Directed by: Alex Proyas
The Skinny: Astrophysics professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) finds himself in a religious quandry when his son comes home with a number-filled paper that has predicted all major disasters within the past 50 years. With three predictions yet to occur, John attempts to stop the inevitable from happening.
The Good: This is a tale of two movies: The first hour is genuinely an interesting story filled with creepy children, haunting whispering, and a very drunk Nic Cageseriously, who drinks that much?contemplating the meaning of his monumental discovery. It's very Da Vinci Code without all of the plot holes and with more balls-to-the-wall special effects. (The plane crash scene left the audience buzzing for a few minutes.) Then, hour two starts
The Bad: Which is when the story starts going all over the place. And by "all over the place," we mean Signs meets Spy Kids meets a Troma movie. The transition from religious commentary to horror movie to sci-fi destruction movie is jarring and the film will leave audiences in the dust as it tries to be everything and nothing at the same time. The premise of the movie, hinging upon the argument of "Determinism vs. Randomness," is just pseudo-intellectual filler meant to provide more gravitas to the shit show that goes on later. Unfortunately, the finale is so face-palmingly overproduced and forced, you can almost feel the actors on screen groaning in awkward disgust.
In Case You're Counting: Nic Cage's hair chose to wear the Matchstick Men 'do for this one.
Theater, DVD, or TNT in five year? We could see this being a DVD rental simply for the two or three really awesome disaster scenes. Other than that, it's TV fodder.
The Skinny: Astrophysics professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) finds himself in a religious quandry when his son comes home with a number-filled paper that has predicted all major disasters within the past 50 years. With three predictions yet to occur, John attempts to stop the inevitable from happening.
The Good: This is a tale of two movies: The first hour is genuinely an interesting story filled with creepy children, haunting whispering, and a very drunk Nic Cageseriously, who drinks that much?contemplating the meaning of his monumental discovery. It's very Da Vinci Code without all of the plot holes and with more balls-to-the-wall special effects. (The plane crash scene left the audience buzzing for a few minutes.) Then, hour two starts
The Bad: Which is when the story starts going all over the place. And by "all over the place," we mean Signs meets Spy Kids meets a Troma movie. The transition from religious commentary to horror movie to sci-fi destruction movie is jarring and the film will leave audiences in the dust as it tries to be everything and nothing at the same time. The premise of the movie, hinging upon the argument of "Determinism vs. Randomness," is just pseudo-intellectual filler meant to provide more gravitas to the shit show that goes on later. Unfortunately, the finale is so face-palmingly overproduced and forced, you can almost feel the actors on screen groaning in awkward disgust.
In Case You're Counting: Nic Cage's hair chose to wear the Matchstick Men 'do for this one.
Theater, DVD, or TNT in five year? We could see this being a DVD rental simply for the two or three really awesome disaster scenes. Other than that, it's TV fodder.