Nicolas Cage is an actor that some feel as though he became a whore at some point. That's not fair. As great as some of his work is, he's always been a working actor. And through some of his low points of the past decade have been shameless (Bangkok Dangerous and The Wicker Man) the man still made Trapped in Paradise and Amos and Andrew. So you can't judge a Nic Cage film by its cover. Dude might do three films of terrible and then just hit it out of the park. What did I think of Knowing? It's after the jump:

Knowing is a two base hit for him. Though Cage is deliriously high pitched at points, the film works, even though I'm not a big fan. I like the fact that the film is ready to go there, and the film is made by its third act, which I can't spoil. That's just not fair.

Cage's character finds a note written fifty years ago in a time capsule. The note eventually decodes to reveal a number of tragedies that have occurred over that time, and predicts events in the future. Cage tracks down the daughter of the author (Rose Byrne), and comes to realize there might be something even worse on the horizon.

Knowing is about accepting the plot, and it's one of those "what if" films that asks you to swallow a lot of things. So the film depends on your ability to engage in the film's text. I don't think the film comes to any great conclusions, but the narrative itself is engaging, and director Alex Proyas does subtle work that never jumps on you. It's fun to get caught up in, but the narrative is a goof. What if there are people who can see the future, and then there's a prophecy of apocalypse, and then other stuff I can't spoil. Can Nicolas Cage stop it? That's enough to make two hours of watching not painful. And that's mostly Proyas's work, as the film works better because his technique than any of the performers.

Summit presents the film in widescreen (2.35:1) and in 5.1 DTS HD surround. Shot on the red camera, the film looks incredible. Extras include a commentary by Alex Proyas. The disc also comes with a making of (13 min.) a featurette called "Vision of the Apocalypse" (18 min.) that speaks to some of the darker elements of the film. And that's it, though there's BD-Live content.