Knight and Day, Ha Ha...What?

Knight and Day

Director: James Mangold (Kate and Leopold, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Dano

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of action violence throughout, and brief strong language.

Another playful romp through mindless summer movies, “Knight and Day” delivers laughs and action and very little of it is memorable. It is a movie that we have all seen before in many different pieces. Cameron Diaz is the blonde sexy starlet who has never fired a gun before and screams a lot the first half of the movie and then settles in during the second half. Tom Cruise is the muscled action hero that can out-run, out-think, out-shoot, and out-wit everyone, but is absolutely hooked on his lady co-star. This all plays out amidst flying bullets and explosions.

The problem here is that nothing is remarkable or lasting. I laughed and then five minutes later I forgot what I had laughed at, then something else funny comes along and I forgot about that scene seconds later as well. The concept of the film is entertaining, but ultimately unsatisfying. Anyone going in to the movie expecting anything more than light summer fluff will be disappointed. We pretty much saw the whole movie in the previews anyway.



I did enjoy the watching the film. I had a few laughs and the action was so-so. The best action part of the movie was when Tom Cruise takes out a plane full of assassins one by one. That scene is the only one with some real one-on-one fighting. The rest of the movie is chock full of relentless car chases and gunfights that would give similar films from the 80s heart-attacks. The problem is, after all the gunfire has stopped and the situational comedy has come to a halt, there is emptiness to the movie that left me disappointed.

“Knight and Day” could have been a lot better, and all in all it scores a 6.5 out of 10. It was an entertaining and average film for the summer; but no one will be talking about “Knight and Day” in a month. It was unremarkable, but the summer crowds will flock to it in droves.

Sex/Nudity – 3 out of 10 – A man and woman kiss a few times, a man is seen without a shirt in a few scenes, a woman is seen in a small bikini. There are also a few sexual innuendos and some sexual dialogue.

Violence/ Gore – 6 out of 10 - Lots of gun fighting and people being killed, almost no blood, there are some fisticuffs, a few people get stabbed. A lot of the killing is done in an almost comic book style and there is very little realism in the action.

Profanity – 6 out of 10 – One loudly pronounced “F” word, 6 or 7 “S” words a few obscenities and 10 or so religious exclamations.