State of Play 9/10 (A Great Example of A Political Thriller)

Movies about politics are exciting. From conspiracies to decisions that are made by leaders of our countries, political thrillers always ask the question, "What if?" and come up with plots that are usually involved with corrupt political leaders. These films always question our system of government, and usually leave you thinking. State of Play is an example on how you make these movies. With all the intrigue and mystery that most political thrillers need, State of Play makes it self stand out with unique characters, great writing, and a gripping story.

State of Play stars Russel Crowe, who plays Cal McAffrey, a charismatic reporter investigating a series of murders linked to his lifelong friend, Congressman Steven Collins played by Ben Affleck. Russel Crowe and Ben Affleck's performances are extremely well done, the addition of great writing, and a gripping story enhances the films overall quality, keeping even those mildly interested in politics interested.

If their was one flaw with this film, it would definitely have to be to be one of the plot twist. The story, being amazing as it is, has a few twists that I found a little unnecessary, but not fatal or injuring to the overall plot in anyway. State of Play is an example that most political thrillers should use. It not only offers a great cast, but incredible writing and a great plot that is both interesting and thrilling. If you are looking for a movie to watch, I completely recommend this movie to you.

Knowing 3.5/10 (Extremely Dissapointing)

Knowing is one of those films that I really expected to be great. It had a great premise of one man knowing all the disasters of the world and his attempt of trying to stop those disasters. It also had a great question of does destiny exist, or does stuff in our world just happen. With the great premise, I had high expectations for this film, expecting only the best from this movie. But what I got not only failed to meet expectations, it made me realize how bad disaster movies can become.

Knowing starts off with a great beginning. It reveals just enough to keep you hooked to the movie itself. The story begins with a girl named Lucinda Embry, played by Lara Robinson. Lara Robinson successfully captures the creepiness of Lucinda, but little dialogue is told. Lucinda Embry writes a document with numbers on it that predict every natural disaster. The reason for this is not revealed immediately, but it helps give some tension. The document is then put in a time capsule, where the film flash forwards to John Koestler, played by Nicholas Cage, and his son, Caleb Koestler, played by Chandler Canterbury. While Cage's performance is acceptable, Canterbury's lack's emotion and just falls flat. The character he plays is also more of an annoyance and rips off Cole Sear from the Sixth Sense.

John Koestler is a widowed teacher who works at MIT. He tries to connect with his son, but feels that Caleb is in need of a mother figure. Caleb is the emotionless son of John who has a very rocky relationship with his father, he also goes to the exact same school that Lucinda goes to. The school finds the time capsule, and gives the creations of the students from the past to the students of today. Caleb gets the document that Lucinda created and finds it to just be a jumble of random numbers. He gives it to his father because he believes it may be some math puzzle. John looks through the numbers and after one night of studying, he not only discovers what it means, but when the disasters occur!!! This implausible plot device really shows how ludicrous the plot grows to be.

Sooner or later, these events occur and it seems this is the only light in this dark horrible film. The disaster scenes in this film are ridiculously cool and really do show how insane chaos can get in these mass disasters. I don't want to mention them because if there was any reason to watch this god awful movie, it would definitely be these scenes of mass chaos. If you want to see these scenes, look them up on you tube.

After these scenes, the plot takes a huge ride to ludo ville. Nothing makes sense, random characters are thrown into the mix, aliens take part in this, and the film decides to go further with this mess, and throws in the apocalypse. At this point I was in my seat angry. Angry at the director, producers, aliens, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson(who plays further further parts which are bland and horrid), Chandler Canterbury and the depressing and ludicrous conclusion, that just makes me want to long for the end of the world. This movie had a great premise, but was hampered by all the random crap that they threw into the mix. The acting is too serious with people screaming for no reason, to people just being emotionless idiots. Nothing is good and it's initial question of whether destiny exist or does stuff happen, is lost in this mess of a movie.

This movie had great ideas, but was shot down by countless faults, by the time this movie ended, my anger at the people who created this film was absolute. Disaster movies have always been known for failing, but I did not know they could fail this badly. This film had a lot of potential, but a ludicrous plot is not the answer to a great concept.