Virtue Is Knowledge . com

Bad politicians, Evil defense contractors (Blackwater mayhaps?), deranged combat veterans, money motivated media corporations, grizzled old school reporter and idealistic ‘cub’ blogger, did we leave anything out? Oh yeah, the young dead girl having an affair with a married politician. The only thing worse than the convoluted cliches is the acting of  Ben Afleck. Maybe the director asked for a wooden performance, or perhaps it was a conscious choice Ben made for his character. It could be his best scenes were cut out. Russell Crowe gives some credibility to the film and you can at least believe his character. There are also some decent cameos by Jeff Daniels, Jason Bateman and Helen Mirren. The twists and turns in this almost thriller may keep you occupied until the not so shocking end, but I felt I was played by State of Play.

This film was shot in the Pittsburgh area and mostly at our famous local amusement park Kennywood. The time is 1987 and this is the story of various college kids working their summer jobs at this park. There were no real adventures and maybe that was the point. These kids, young adults I should say, spent most of their time whining about their sucky middle class suburban lives, college, graduate school,  and smoking weed. Smoking dope and drinking seemed to be the major past time for the youths. I didn’t get it. The film had few laughs and the love story wasn’t very compelling either. Was it supposed to be a commentary on the 1980′s? Depressed dope smoking college kids are were apparently the norm. Funny, I graduated from college in 1984 and didn’t see this stereotype much at all. So, I don’t know what this movie is trying to say. All I can say is it was not an adventure for me. If yinz’r from the area and like to see Pixburgh on the big screen, you may see some sights you know.

Throw  the movies Contact, Signs, Deep Impact, The Day the Earth Stood Still (not the good one either) and creepy kids into a pot, add Nicolas Cage and you’ll have a movie that leaves you wondering, not knowing. OK the performances aren’t that bad, but the tragic widower astro-physicist whose father is a minister? Cryptic  numbers in a time capsule? And your GPS is the glue that brings it all together. The story line is a mess and the script is full of tired cinema cliches. The effects are not too bad, but they do not make for the ridiculousness of the rest. White bunnies? Give me a break. I don’t want to write too much on this as I’ve wasted enough time on this movie. You don’t want to know Knowing.