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One never knows what one is going to get when seeing a movie starring Nicolas Cage, but one does know that when seeing a movie directed by Alex Proyas (Dark City), it's probably going to be interesting. It's actually interesting to compare Dark City with Knowing, but that's another discussion for another day. In this movie, Cage plays a professor named John Keslter. His son is in grade school, and when the school opens an old time capsule, his son is supposed to be given a drawing from 1959 that shows how the children of yesteryear envisioned the future. But the son is given a sheet of paper that's covered with numbers. John thinks the numbers are random, but when he zeroes in he recognizes some of the numbers as dates, and eventually figures out that they also signify how many people are going to die on those dates, as well as the exact location of the disasters.

When John realizes that there are future dates on the paper, he decides he needs to do something about it. But one can one man do when it comes to giant disasters? He is ill-equipped, and his efforts would be humorous if the events following them weren't so terrible. There are some really thrilling scenes here, especially a three-minute continuous shot of a plane crash. I can tell you that I knew it was coming, but I had no idea how it would be shot and how effective it would be. It really got to me (minus the Lost comparisons running through my head).

The action sequences in this movie are bigger than I would have imagined for a mid-March movie. They're right up there with anything I expect to see this summer. In fact, the quality and pace are everything I would expect from summer blockbusters, but I guess the movie might not have appeal for all audiences. I was surprised to find it rather suspenseful, even though there were a few cliches. I think what got me was a vision John's son sees. Thank goodness I saw a dad walk his daughter out of the theater right before the scene happened, or it might have given her nightmares for a while. Proyas' vision is effective, and not even Nicolas Cage could screw it up.

Poor Nick Cage. I actually do like him, but there are some moments where his acting gets far too pronounced. Just the way he chooses to stand in certain instances is laughable. I thought that he and Rose Byrne could have toned down some of their reactions just a notch. I know they were trying to communicate the urgency two people would have if they were the only two people on Earth who believed they knew about a terrible disaster that was going to happen soon, but in the theater where I saw the movie, several people were laughing at their erratic driving habits and over-panicked reactions.

The movie takes its premise and decides to soar with it and go much farther than I think most audiences are willing to go. I went with it and enjoyed it. And afterward, I went back and read some articles I had seen online about it that I didn't want to read due to spoilers. There are some interesting ideas about Biblical prophecy out there in relation to the movie, and I'd talk about them here, but I don't want to spoil it for you either. Suffice to say I think it's worth a rental if you're interested in this kind of thing. I liked it a lot and would say it's one of the more underrated (but not understated!) movies I've seen this year.