Film & TV

Knight and Day

Rating: MA 15+

Running Time: 110 minutes

Release Date: 15 July 2010

200px-Knight_and_day_09

Check cinema guide for location and screening times

This thriller comedy stars Tom Cruise as Roy Miller in his return to his good old action hero days when women swooned and guys just wanted to be like him. Looking to recreate his box office appeal after his image has taken a battering in the past few years it sees him return to those familiar characterisations, charming, witty and able to achieve the improbable against the baddies behind trademark dark sunnies and irresistable smile.  Sounds familiar (think Mission Impossible).  This time he teams up with Cameron Diaz (June Havens) as his damsel in distress.  Roy orchestrates an encounter with June at the airport resulting in them sharing a flight from Wichita to Boston as June returns home to attend her sister April’s (Maggie Grace) wedding. The “in-flight” entertainment leaps into action and doesn’t stop until the film’s end. Here June becomes unwittingly involved in an espionage plot to acquire a unique perpetual energy battery and its genius inventor Simon Feck (Paul Dano).  With a myriad of characters in pursuit such as Agent Fitzgerald (Peter Saarsgard), supposed director of CIA (Viola Davis) and Antonio (Jordi Molla) Spanish arms dealer with his merry henchmen, June is forced to go on the run fearing for her life and not entirely sure of who to trust.

The first 15 minutes of the film are totally ludicrous as we are led to believe that June would fall for the charms of stranger Roy whose actions are more of those of a deranged stalker.  Once the mid-flight turbulence settles down so does the film and even though the plot is convoluted and has many holes, if you can overcome these misgivings buckle in for an action packed ride littered with comic elements. The pace of the film never lets up, probably so we don’t dwell on the inconsistencies, which is to its detriment as you soon tire of the countless rescuing of June by the indestructible Roy against a hailstorm of bullets.  As the plot twists and turns it still doesn’t fool us from knowing the somewhat predictable outcome by writer of this action farce, Patrick O’Neill.  Diaz is great as she hams it up as the goofy damsel providing the odd welcome comic relief and reminding the audience that we aren’t really supposed to take this film seriously so forget about filling in the minefield of plot holes.  The problem is we expect more than this film delivers suffering from lack of characterisation, laughs and chemistry between Cruise and Diaz in spite of their reasonable performances with what they have been given.  Poor Peter Saarsgard just looks confused as to what he is supposed to be doing half the time.  Such a waste of a fine actor.  Even the obligatory exotic locations, in this case tropical island paradise, Seville and Salzburg lovingly shot by cinematographer Phedon Papamichael and director James Mangold (Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma) fail to lift this above mediocre. The recreation of the “running of the bulls” using CGI was truly cringe worthy.

If you can totally suspend your belief and not worry that the plot doesn’t ring true and happy with just an escapist adventure you may still find this film entertaining and watchable.

2.5/5 stars

More News

To Top