Képlet

Én, a robot tiszta stúdiófilm volt - drágább, feltűnőbb, bombasztikusabb, de egyben sekélyesebb és felszínesebb is. A Képlet című film kisebb és szerényebb, de egyben személyesebb és érzékenyebb is. A nem túl eredeti témát és a gyengébb csúcspontot felülírja a tökéletes forgatókönyv és vágás, ahol a karakterek térnyerésétől kezdve az akciódinamikán át a horrorelemekig mindent pontos adagokban tálalnak. Arról nem is beszélve, hogy a speciális effektek itt úgy hatnak mint eye candy, hanem alárendelődnek a lélekkel teli történetnek. Nick Cage pedig már régen nem olvadt össze ilyen könnyedén a filmes képekkel. A Képlet egy remek kis film, amit úgy érzem, hogy magasabbra kell értékelnem, mint amire számítottam. (2009.09.02)

Proyas is a wizard. For a ridiculously low amount of money (by the budgetary standards of modern Hollywood), he delivered an atmospheric visual treat that can send chills down the spine. Though script-wise is like a poor man’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the pathetic conversation with the father and the grain scene look like something out of the Jehovah Witnesses’ magazine Watchtower, I still give it thumbs up for the bold apocalyptic denouement. The film is not without flaws, but you can feel the craftsmanship and the author's passion for the cause, and that is appreciated. Proyas's favourite albinos had a suitably creepy effect, with Cage surprisingly tame and not overacting. (2009.06.21)

Not counting Star Trek, Knowing is the best sci-fi film in a very long time (The Day The Earth Stood Still and I Am Legend are not even close). Proyas is a master of atmosphere and his splendid direction and eye-candy visuals made me fully immerse in the film and enjoy it in a way I hadn’t expected. I didn’t even care that I had a vague idea of the twist due to some spoiling moron. Actually, it’s not even that hard to guess quite early on, but it doesn’t matter much because the most important thing here is the atmosphere. My only quibbles are addressed at the not very good CGI, some annoying father-son conversations and the overall predictability (which, actually, is quite nonsense for a film that works with fate and predestination). Cage is more than bearable, he’s finally made a good film after a long time. For me, very satisfied 4 stars (though they could have left out the final field escapade…) (2009.06.28)

Proyas has mastered the craft perfectly, but this skill is absolutely useless when he has to deal with a completely trivial script that drags the plot through the morass of the cheapest clichés. Then the director himself becomes a problem, as two pivotal scenes (by the way, letting them get on the internet was a major mistake) seem to have come out of a completely different film. Then there are the horror sequences, which perfectly battle with the cheap remainder of the film, overstuffed with warped family relationships and long-winded scientific theories. It’s a film that’s perfect in its individual parts, but as a whole, it’s... disappointing. PS: (2009.06.26)

Most of the time I thought that critics had hurt Knowing, because it is a thrilling and suggestive disaster film that surpasses its even more expensive colleagues thanks to Proyas' directing and great visuals. However, the biblical finale turns the tolerable ridiculousness into something very close to farce. One tends to forgive disaster films their plot holes and the strange (un)motivation of the characters, but the moment the creators hit you with heavy metaphysical calibers, you can now veto the tolerance. Knowing clearly suffers from ambitions that were too high. If it had stayed more grounded, it would be amongst the top films of the genre. Nicolas Cage saying a sentence like "how do I save the world?" would be a problem even in a much better-thought-out film. [65%] (2009.07.15)

Unbreakable meets Signs and for that reason alone this is something I would expect from Shyalaman in his best days. (2009.06.21)

Caleb was a bit of a klutz. Abby totally cool, like nothing was going on all the time, her mom the complete opposite, just yelling, hysterical all the time. And Nicholas was Cage... More than half of the movie was pretty much boring, and for how long the movie is, it's pretty long. The best part of the whole movie was the big flashback. So I'm thinking the last scene could be followed up with another movie... (2009.07.12)

When watching Knowing, I couldn't help but compare it to a similar film, The Mothman Prophecies, which is firmly situated in the mystery genre - unlike Knowing, which is genre-wise much broader, but essentially it is "bastardized sci-fi," which should be much dearer to me as a fan of the genre. Surprisingly, and I emphasize that I don't consider The Mothman Prophecies a film gem in any way. It's nice that Proyas has decent craftsmanship and tries to create the right atmosphere, but at the same time, he heavily copies from successful films of the past and relies on the most banal and naive ideas about encountering extraterrestrial intelligence. The combination of Close Encounters of the Third Kind with People from Space doesn't appeal to me much, not to mention that at times (e.g., in shots from the alien world or when the camera zooms in on the detail of the American flag waving in the wind), the director slides into blatant kitsch. The script is similar to the directing, in that it steals a lot and routinely puts it together. A separate chapter is Cage's performance. I'm not one of those who sharpen their wit on the topic of his current roles, mainly because most of his titles in recent years fall outside my interest, but his alternating roughly four expressions, with the frightened and stunned one prevailing, really got on my nerves. All in all, the destruction of the world according to Proyas doesn't seem smarter than according to Emmerich, nor is it more entertaining. Overall impression: 40%. (2013.05.02)

You know those movies that have a brilliant theme but kind of a stupid screenplay? Well, this is one of them. Luckily, Proyas is such an expert that he brings absolutely everything to really important scenes. The disasters that happen are each more delicious than the last and are filmed in such a way that you won't know which one you liked better. Cage kind of pissed me off that he stole such a good movie from someone who isn’t going through a bad acting period (though he tried quite hard here) and I was wondering why not try to cast Kiefer Sutherland or Tom Hanks? Mainly, it would have been better to re-cast the screenwriters. However, at the end I was fully absorbed and I was just watching to see what the hell was going on. Atmospheric science fiction which brings one possible answer to the basic question: "Why?". (2009.06.21)

Thrilling atmosphere and visual effects. Proyas is one of the few directors who knows how to utilize the technical aspects of a film to the fullest, which means not only as a showcase of current technologies, but as a fully-fledged plot attribute. The solid beginning is unfortunately marred the quite clumsy ending – a blend of kitsch and pathos – and at times I even felt that the director didn't know where to go. In the last minutes, it was quite a mess. Knowing could have turned out much better. Cage is bearable after a long time, even in a non-action role. (2010.01.02)

If Nicolas Cage has something to act in, he does it. In the case of Knowing, he was lucky to have both a decently atmospheric and chillingly escalating script and a director who really knows how to play with films. After a long time, Knowing is a Cage film (i.e., starring Cage) that I can recommend to just about anyone. Suspenseful from the beginning until the great final 25 minutes, with decent special effects and Marc Beltrami's music, which you will notice especially during the more dramatic scenes. Clean four stars, good job! (2010.06.12)

Well, wonderful. The leader of the space Love Boat fleet, Ashtar Sheran, must have been squirming contentedly in his seat watching this... weirdness. A disgustingly fractured film in terms of genre, a typical emasculated PG-13 movie where after a monstrous car crash the unrestrained female driver of a passenger car has only a small scratch on her forehead when she collides with a truck, hyper-intelligent American brats running around everywhere (just like in real life), and those albinos... oh my god those albinos. The last shot is of the surreal variety, and it boggles my mind how the director of a film with one of the best endings (Dark City) could create something like that. To be honest, I'm of the opinion that Proyas didn't finish revising it. There are a few scenes that are genuinely good – the disgustingly digital but still quite impressive subway, the overwrought one-take plane scene (the effort was there, but it sounds almost theatrical compared to the perfectionism of Children of Men), the aforementioned car crash, and the final ride through the city accompanied by Beethoven, which just brought to mind its far more impressive use in Irreversible anyway. All in all, I'm sick of these emasculated wannabe-dark and wannabe-adult blockbusters, but the target market is just crammed full of morons, and so the divine Watchmen will flop and this fucker will be all the rage. I wanna live in magic land... (2009.08.26)