Knight and Day

***

Tom Cruise doesn’t really do Average Joes. I never bought him as blue collar in War of the Worlds. He gives so much more value for money when playing alpha (e.g. hotshot lawyer, fighter pilot, special agent). Knight and Day sees him playing the latter to rather good comic effect. His wild-eyed, rogue agent Roy Miller is thrown into a whole load of chaos with a cherry on top, namely Cameron Diaz (June Havens).

The stunts are so outrageous they are somewhat knowingly mocked. The logic being: yes we know this is ridiculous but it looks cool, huh? I do wish action directors would lay off the CGI, though. Even the simplest of stunts that was done for real / in camera were far more exciting than all the special-effects-icised ones (you know what I mean) combined. And hey, who needs special effects when you’ve got Cruise. When it comes to action he’s already extremely effective. Whatever you think of the guy, you cannot deny his dexterity.

I can understand why it was a disappointment at the box office. It just seems a bit “vanilla” for a big summer [2010] film and one that stars Tom Cruise. You expect more from such a “tentpole” movie. Perhaps it’s because the formula does seem a bit tired: a screaming hysteric (her) being dragged into, and then saved from, a number of dangerous situations by a cool professional (him). It brings to mind Bird on a Wire whose routine felt a bit hackneyed back in 1990. Couldn’t we have the woman dragging a pathetic man around for just once?

Diaz doesn’t bring anything that interesting to the barbecue, just some mild kookiness. While not a total disaster (as some have suggested), the chemistry between the two of them is not the greatest. The worldwide weirdness surrounding Cruise doesn’t help when a romance is at the centre of a film. However, it’s good fun and has a lot more life and character than any of the recent soulless output from Michael Bay or James Cameron.