On DVD: ‘Knowing’ fails at being suspenseful, plausible

Nicholas Cage plays an MIT astrophysicist who cracks a code that contains some chilling predictions in 'Knowing.'
 

Perhaps the toughest task for any science fiction film involves trying to balance entertainment and suspense values with plausible scenarios and details. If there’s too much focus on “real” science, you risk alienating the general audience. But if things are so implausible, then the hardcore faithful are insulted.

Unfortunately Knowing, which comes to DVD this week (Summit) managed to fail on both counts. It had some pretty impressive disaster scenes, but a completely unconvincing storyline, and ultimately it wasn’t all that enjoyable or gripping either.

The opening established a potentially intriguing concept. An elementary school class in 1959 draws pictures of what they think the world will look 50 years later. These are put into a time capsule to be reopened at that time. But there’s one youngster who doesn’t participate in the process.

Her peers already think Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson) is weird and strange, and she adds more fuel to that fire by writing a series of numbers on the front and back of a piece of paper rather than drawing a picture.

But it seems she was on to something. When MIT astrophysicist John Koestler’s (Nicolas Cage) son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), who attends that same school where Bryant was once a student, gets her envelope out of the opened time capsule, a host of things begin happening.

From there, you get a convergence of science, religion and spectacle that might have been epic if better handled, but instead comes off here as more gimmicky than meaningful.

There’s a secondary storyline involving Embry’s daughter Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne), Diana’s own daughter Abby (Lara Robinson in a dual role) and Koestler’s family.

Overall, if you’re seeking some light entertainment, getting this DVD isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just far from being even a good science fiction work.

The same holds true in another genre for The Unborn (Universal), which comes out on DVD this week as well. This one follows the nightmares and adventures of a young woman (Odette Yustman) that has become the prey of demonic ghost. He haunts her both awake and asleep, to the point that she decides her only hope is an exorcism with the famed spiritual advisor Sendak (Gary Oldman). Of course, this only leads her into even more strange, bizarre and scary situations.

Films like The Exorcist, The Omen (original version) and even Rosemary's Baby brilliantly explored the notion of spirit possession, demonic rage and ghostly domination. This one mostly raises the question, “What is an actor with Gary Oldman’s track record doing wasting his time?” though Yustman does get placed in all types of cliffhanger scenarios over the movie’s far too long 177-minutes.

TV on DVD

Angela Lansbury battled both physical and family problems near the end of her long and distinguished run portraying former teacher turned mystery writer Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote. This week Murder She Wrote: The Compete Tenth Season (Universal), a five-disc boxed set, compiles all 21 episodes of what would be another excellent season.

Among its highlights was a show that reunited Lansbury with another legend Mickey Rooney. It was the series’ 200th episode and sparked many interviews with Lansbury reminiscing about starring with Rooney five decades earlier for MGM studios.

Tippi Hedren was another screen icon who made a guest starring appearance that season.

Murder She Wrote would last two more seasons before finally being cancelled by CBS. The final episode, “Death by Demographics,” was prophetic in showing the demise of creativity in broadcasting due to the ascension of consultants and demographers.