KNIGHT AND DAY
(PG-13)
MOVIE: *** (out of 5)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
June (Cameron Diaz) is just an average girl who has a chance run-in with an unbalanced superspy (Tom Cruise) on a plane. He plants a piece of secret technology on her, and that sends them on a whirlwind chase from their own government to protect the technology and its inventor.
WHAT I LIKED
“Knight and Day” was a fun little movie. I haven’t seen “Killers” yet, but I can’t imagine this isn’t better than it. And it beats the pants off of the inexplicably Golden Globe-nominated “The Tourist.” Tom Cruise still works as an action star, and Cameron Diaz is consistently bubbly on screen. Sure, she screams a lot, but she doesn’t get on my nerves like Katherine Heigl would.
On the whole, this film hits all the beats you’d expect from an international thriller. It has the well constructed action sequences, plenty of chases, attractive stars and a plot that moves forward with purpose, for the most part.
It may not be the most memorable film, but it makes a nice, safe date night movie either in the theater or at home.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
I know this was supposed to be Tom Cruise’s return to movie stardom after a couple misfires (and not a small amount of couch jumping) in the past couple years. And yeah, he shows that he can still do the “Mission: Impossible” thing. But he is getting old. Like Cameron Diaz, they both look great… for their age. They’re not the hottest, youngest things in Hollywood any more. (I know this makes me sound like a superficial pig, but them’s the breaks, kids.)
This movie also suffers from a significant amount of focus problems. Not from a light standpoint, mind you, but from a plot standpoint. Even the title “Knight and Day” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and its explanation emerges in what appears to be a mess of studio meddling. At least this doesn’t get in the way of the fun action.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
While there’s a decent number of special features, they suffer under the astronomical weight of Tom Cruise’s ego. The featurette “Wilder Knights and Crazier Days” works for the most part when it’s not heaping praise on the film’s co-stars. Same goes for the location shoot featurette “Boston Days and Spanish Knights.”
Additional featurettes include “Knight and Day: Story” and “Knight and Day: Scope,” plus a few forced viral videos from the marketing campaign.
But the biggest egoboo to Tom Cruise is the “Knight and ‘Someday’” featuertte about the Black Eyed Peas writing a song for the film and gushing over Cruise at the song’s premiere.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
People who like a punchy international thriller and are die-hard fans of Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.