- Location: AMC Columbia 14
- Knight and Day is a surprisingly entertaining bit of summer fluff that succeeds primarily by knowing its own limits. If the film had a single moment of gravitas, it wouldn't work. If Tom Cruise had failed even once to flash his trademark goofy grin or had exhibited a moment's lapse in confidence, the facade would have crumbled. If Cameron Diaz had inadvertently come across as being sensible, calm, and/or collected, I never would have believed it. But instead, Cruise is an Action Hero! and Diaz is a Modern Damsel-in-Distress! Toss in some over-the-top car chases, plane crashes, and fight sequences, and you have yourself a summer action flick.
- The plot involves a chance (or was it?) meeting between Roy Miller (Cruise) and June Havens (Diaz) at an airport. The two end up on the same plane, which is otherwise populated with enough dour-looking musclemen that it should be obvious to everyone what's going to happen next. While June takes a powder, Roy pummels and/or kills everyone else on the plane, including one particularly tough stewardess and, unfortunately, the pilots. Roy grins his way (naturally) through an explanation of what happened before proceeding to crash the plane in a cornfield. Rather than try to cope with June's obvious distress, Roy simply drugs her and returns her to her apartment, now replete with sticky notes reminding her not to get in cars with people who identify themselves as government agents. This is the basic structure of the film, and it repeats itself several times in a diverse set of locations including Boston, a desert island, Salzberg, a train, and Seville.
- The villains in Knight and Day exist exclusively to chase Roy and June and shoot at them with machine guns. These villains come in several varieties, including the C.I.A. model, the most dastardly of whom is named Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard), and the weapons dealer model, led by the also-dastardly Antonio (Jordi Molla). Sometimes the villains enter the scene via ninja ropes, but they also arrive in vehicles that are prone to exploding and/or being flipped over. There are also good guys in the form of an inventive prodigy (Royal Dano) and a humorously hapless firefighter (Marc Blucas), but they have regrettably minor roles.
- To ask what is memorable about Knight and Day is perhaps to miss the point. It is a silly, fun, cheesy movie, and I doubt I'll give it much of a second thought after this review. I've heard (indirectly) that several reviewers found its CGI to be objectionable. The CGI and special effects were admittedly sub-par, but it would have been stranger if this movie had not been superficial. It's an enjoyable summer break from serious film and nothing more. Now that I've seen it, I'll probably get back to something a little more substantial.
