Knight and Day - Review

I have not gone into a movie in quite a while with lower expectations than when I went to see Knight and Day over its opening weekend. I had heard mediocre things at best about it from various different critics, but I did hear one by the Movie Man where he was pretty positive (http://bit.ly/9HOHn6). The Movie Man is into this movie and so am I, the movie takes about 5 minutes to get going, and then continues to throw in a mix of action, comedy, and dramady which holds your attention for the almost 2 hours that this film runs.

Tom Cruise (Roy Miller) and Cameron Diaz (June Havens), make for an odd couple. I believe in real life she towers over the actor but on screen their pairing kind of makes sense. He plays a suave, confident super-spy and she's a capable but clueless owner of a car shop. They meet randomly in Wichita, Kansas while waiting for their flight to depart. That's about all the set-up there is, in addition to some dialogue in the plane, before shit starts to get really real, really quick for June. While in the bathroom freshening up for Roy, June is completely oblivious to the fact that he dispatches a handful of assassins as well as the pilots of the plane they are on, and is then forced to crash land the plane in a field. That's the first 10 minutes of the movie, and from then on its a great back and forth between the two of them, from highway chases to speedboat rides, the two play off of each other and have a great rapport and chemistry on film.

The movie's plot is based on Roy trying to save Simon (Paul Dano) and keep a battery that Simon has developed from falling into the wrong hands. He's being chased by Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard) of the FBI and Antonio (Jordi Molla) of a European gun manufacturing syndicate. At first I thought Jordi looked familiar and when he started yelling, I recognized where I knew him form, he played Hector Tapia in Bad Boys II and I really liked him in it, shame he doesn't get much screen time in Knight and Day.

I have to say that Cruise is back to his goofy bad-ass self in this movie. He's been doing different dramatic (Valkyrie) and comedic (Tropic Thunder) films for the last few years, but here he's back to what made Mission Impossible so great, he's: funny, smart, charming, daring, and has that Tom Cruise grin that all the ladies swoon over. It's almost unfair to Diaz, she tries very hard to keep up throughout the movie, but Cruise steals the show. She's a good fit for him though and their comedic timing fits well together (think Mr. & Mrs. Smith which is the closest thing to this movie).

I give Knight and Day a 4.5/5. That might be a little bit high, but the movie met and exceeded my expectations in every way (and that's not just because my expectations were low at the get-go). The best part about this movie is the way it ends, the final sequence is well done, and plays off the feel of the movie. Of course it also leaves a bit of an opening for a sequel and I, for one, and really hoping that they can do it.