Knowing (Alex Proyas, 2009)

In which astrophysicist Nicolas Cage is the only person in the world to be gifted with the foreknowledge of every coming world disaster, revealed through mystical numbers (shorthand for science). The dreadful burden of this drives him somewhat anxious, so that he gets to do some acting in that anguished gurn style that keeps the world's cinema audiences flocking back for more. This is a pity, as his air of dumb vulnerability can be worked to good effect by an astute director - for comic effect, as in Raising Arizona, or the angst-stricken, as in Leaving Las Vegas or Adaptation. Likewise this script, which bamboozles religious orthodoxy by mixing up aliens with angels and is brave enough to actually end the world, also has a seed of something more substantial buried within it. That seed remains ungerminated, however, and all it really gives up is a series of increasingly impressive shots of big things blowing up.

4/10