Knight and Day Review

Julian's Rating: 3/10 Player Affinity Composite Rating: 4.8/10 (4 reviews total) Action blockbusters have always had a special place in the hearts of moviegoers. Add some good comedy and recognizable stars, and you have the recipe for success. However, the finished product of that recipe doesn't always turn out to be so delicious. Such is the case with Knight and Day. June Havens (Cameron Diaz) is about to take a flight back to her home town for her sister’s wedding. While making the stops one makes when boarding a flight, she bumps into Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) multiple times. Well, June ends up catching a ride on the same plane as him, and it turns out that Roy is actually a spy. Or so he says. She’s also hearing from government officials that he’s gone rogue. Whatever it is that is actually going on, she’s stuck with him. What’s good to say about James Mangold’s latest film? Well, there’s Cruise and Diaz. Both are very talented actors who can hold their own in a motion picture. Cruise makes for a great agent of intelligence and brute. Meanwhile, Diaz is perfect for the clueless woman who happens to be dragged along for the ride. Paul Dano, Viola Davis, and Peter Sarsgaard are all fine in their performances as well. The action sequences are top notch as well. That being said, Knight and Day suffers from quite a few problems, the most notable of which is a severe lack of fun. The failure in the fun department comes from a majority of the humor being staler than a decade-old bag of chips. Sure, Cruise and Diaz can act phenomenally. Even the chemistry between the two works, but even they cannot add depth to this horrifically written “humor.” Also, there is too much going on in the film. A film of this nature should be fast-paced and adventurous, with little emphasis on the plot. Instead, it is slow and predictable. Plots are necessary for a film to be good. While Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was entertaining, it certainly wasn't a great film. Random action sequences then spontaneously being teleported to Egypt isn’t exactly brilliant filmmaking. However, Knight and Day fails because for the exact opposite reason: there is too much of a plot to actually enjoy the film. There are also some minor problems with the sound mixing/editing, most notably when one character is speaking in a foreign language. The sound mixing/editing was so poor that at times it was like watching a poorly dubbed kung fu movie. Knight and Day is a rather terrible film. The action sequences work, but the humor flops in an epic fashion, and although the two leads are stellar actors in the big scheme of things, even they cannot save this from being a disaster. It’s safe to say that this and an entertaining film are as different as night and day. Rating: 3/10  Knight and Day Directed by James Mangold Written by Patrick O'Neill Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard Other Player Affinity Reviews Dinah Thought: "Tom Cruise has had a rough few years. The once highly regarded actor and sex symbol isn’t the box office hit or regarded public figure he was in his Mission Impossible days. Yet new movie Knight and Day is a fun popcorn action flick that shows Cruise still has the chops, especially when playing the slightly deranged persona he is maligned for off the set. Cameron Diaz, playing the helpless princess to his knight in shining armor, overacted in her role. The girlish facial expressions and cluelessness that were charming in There’s Something About Mary don’t work for the now aging star. Still, besides some poorly done effects in the end (including notoriously bad voiceover) the story and humor kept my attention from start to finish." Rating: 6/10   Kieran thought: "Mediocre is the best word to describe Knight and Day. Despite having a decent cast and a talented director the film suffers from a weak script. It is surprising a director like James "Walk the Line" Mangold made this, but he does have a fun scene playing typical rom-com music with Tom Cruise killing a plane load of agents, but the rest of the film's action scenes are average and the CGI is about the same levels as the mid-1990s. The film shows its script weakness by using a lazy device to knock out one of the main characters to skip how the characters would escape a difficult situation. Knight and Day also needed to be funnier. Cruise and Diaz are likeable enough and no actor disgraces themselves in the film, but they did not have a have a lot to work with either. Everyone who was involved in Knight and Day is better then this and hopefully they all find a better script for next time." Rating: 4/10 Simon thought: "This star vehicle for the dashing Tom Cruise and the sultry Cameron Diaz is almost like a double-bill/two films in one. The first is a funny, wry, almost satirical action comedy with great chemistry between the leads, while the second is a ponderously dull, action-heavy offering that accomplishes little but dragging down the superior initial build-up. Even more detrimental than the rather abrupt shift in overall quality is a horrendous supporting performance from Paul Dano (an actor who I am liking less and less with each role) which is as obnoxious as it is perfunctory. The central leads in Cruise and Diaz are very likable, however, and they are able to carry the film sufficiently through the rough patches and anchor the frequently over-the-top action in some realm of reality. When looking at director James Mangold’s past efforts such as Identity, Walk the Line and 3:10 to Yuma, this must be held as a bit of a disappointment, but as far as popcorn fare is concerned, you could certainly do worse." Rating: 6.5/10    Player Affinity Composite Rating: 4.8/10