Yeong Kar YanOh, the horror when I first saw the poster. Two white silhouettes against a stark looking background? Not exactly the prettiest of Hollywood posters.
Thank goodness, the movie is way better than its publicity.
And it is indeed, Cruise and Diaz who sell the show, as the poster’s loud orange typography so clearly screams.
June Havens (Cameron Diaz) is basically your ordinary Midwestern girl from Wichita, Kansas… that is, until she meets mysterious stranger/flight mate, Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) who turns out to be a secret agent on the run. Federal agents are suddenly trying to bring her to “safe and secure” places when really, they just want to off her. Survival becomes a game of trust and the couple races across the globe, dodging bullets or running from bulls and more.
Clearly, director, John Mangold, throws all logic out the window with this movie – hoping to dazzle with non-stop action (even if it doesn’t make sense) and banks on the on-screen chemistry between Diaz and Cruise to make it work.
It is a never-ending series of close shaves and narrow escapes but of course, the good guys must triumph over the evil. Millers is practically immune to death or really has a lot of luck on his side. He leaps onto the rooftops of random cars, hurls himself off buildings and even has time to plant kisses or exchange careless banter with his co-star as dozens of guys try to kill him with their guns.
Havens accidentally stabs an assassin in the heart on a hilarious train fight to which she gushes, “Oh, I’m so sorry!” And she has another one of her moments in Spain, where she shoots at the bad guys while straddling Millers on a motorbike and being chased by a herd of bulls in Spain.
It is clear though who the knight in the movie really is as Miller always swoops in just in the nick of time to save Havens over and over again.
However, one of his favourite solutions seems to be to drug her in trapped situations (e.g. when being cornered by Spanish armed dealers at a safe house in New York). The result is a series of transitions, fading in and out, as Havens and a confused audience wakes alternatively in new locations. It’s almost as if the screenwriters injected her with drugs just because they didn’t know how to continue the scene.
Yet all is easily forgiven thanks to Cruise and Diaz, who incidentally, reunite as lovers for the first time after Vanilla Sky (though without the sticky ending).
Cruise oozes sexy charm and charisma, like Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible) but equipped with a sense of humour while Diaz’s ditzy likeable character provides most of the laughs. The Charlie’s Angels starlet is no newbie in the action comedy department and her short little bikini scene probably didn’t hurt much for the guys either.
Fans of Black Eyed Peas will also like the song “Someday” which was specially penned by will.i.am, who admits to being a Tom Cruise fan, for this hilarious action-comedy.
Overall, Knight and Day is a good movie though it has to try a little harder if it wants in on the box office pie what with Toy Story 3 now out in cinemas and Eclipse of The Twilight Saga coming out next week.
Title: Knight and Day
Opening Date: 24 June 2010
Duration: 110 Minutes
Language: English
Genre: Action, Comedy
Directed by: James Mangold
Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard
Rating: ★★★☆☆