Latest News

09 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1! Yes, there's a brand new Fantasy Formula One game! Check the rules or Enter your team by Friday night to qualify for the first race in Bahrain!

08 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Mexico are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Jordan on 1st April.

17 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The points awarded for a win have changed in the real WRC, so we've reflected the changes in our scoring too. Check the rules to see the details. Next rally is Mexico on 5th March, teams will be frozen at midnight on the night of Thursday 4th March.

16 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Sweden are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team.

31 / 01 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The new rally season is upon us - 2010 Fantasy Rally is now open! Check the rules or pick a team ready for the start on 12th Feb.

25 / 10 / 2009
Fantasy Rally: All previous years' Fantasy Rally results are online - Check the 2009 season.

02 / 08 / 2009
Reviews: Sorry, there won't be any more movie reviews for the foreseeable future. Events have overtaken me. Catch up on reviews you may have missed.

18 / 08 / 2005
Sudoku! Have a go at the online Sudoku game.

Knowing

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury. Directed by Alex Proyas. Story: A sequence of seemingly random numbers inexplicably predicts disasters. Running Time: 2hrs 1 minute. UK certificate 15, US certificate PG-13.

Wow. Knowing really is a two-headed coin.

On the one hand, the story's utter shite - so poorly conceived and executed that you stop even trying to pick it apart in the same way you don't try and count to ten. Nicolas Cage comes into possession of a long string of numbers that have been buried for fifty years, that represent the dates of disasters that occurred while the list was buried. OK, we can accept that as an axiom of the movie, but when Nic breaks the code by choosing just one random bunch of numbers that happen to say "0911012996" (09/11/01, 2996 deaths - the World Trade Center attacks - by complete chance he's picked the most significant numbers on the whole sheet), realisation dawns that it's going to be about as challenging as David Beckham's Big Book of Breakfast Brainteasers.

Flip the coin, however, and you see that director Alex Proyas (of I, Robot fame) has injected so much drama and excitement that the crap plot stops mattering. The plane crash scene, in particular, is visual cinematic brilliance in a way we haven't seen since Children of Men. How on earth you shoot several continuous minutes of a plane crash and all the ensuing debris in one long flowing shot, I have absolutely no idea. It's worth watching for that scene alone.

Nicolas Cage is, as regular readers will know, not my favourite star. He's picked some great movies in the past (Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation) but is in his fair share of cash-cowpats as well (The Rock, National Treasure). He does nothing new here, and lapses into embarrassing physical overacting at the rather silly and clumsily symbolic ending, while Rose Byrne (Damages, Sunshine) does her largely unsuccessful best to ground him. With a half-decent screenplay that actually fitted together, Knowing could've been another I, Robot, but I guess we'll have to wait until Proyas's next movie for that.

Knowing nearly becomes one of the disasters that it predicts, but some fabulous visual work has miraculously saved it.

I enjoyed this film: 3/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 3/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 2/5

To enjoy this film: Ignore the fact that the plot is a pile of holes tied together with candy floss and take in the sights.

Knowing was released in the UK on 25th March 2009.