-Tom Cruise, as himself
"Need help, what's a good word to describe Tom's Character?"
"Ethan Hunt with a good sense of humor."
"The words 'douche' and 'tard' come to mind..."
-One interesting IMDb discussion
"The duo emit no whiff of mingled sexual musk as they collide. Yet here the pair are, fatefully bound together by predicaments she didn't ask for (which only partly accounts for why she shrieks so girlishly in extremis), and which he doesn't have time to explain as he kills bad guys with ostensibly amusing efficiency. At least they're not Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher in Killers."
-Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly, discussing the importance of timing
“Spy movies haven’t been the same since the Bourne movies came along. Even James Bond sat up and took notice, but Knight & Day is an adventure movie that pretends Jason Bourne never woke up with amnesia. Instead it revels in being a fluffy throwback to the early 007 days (the Connery and Moore years) but without the gadgets, or even the action-adventures of the '80s that thrived on the debonair-hero-and-hapless-heroine -along-for-the-ride formula of Raiders Of The Lost Ark or Romancing The Stone.”
Matt Neal, The Standard
Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise join forces (if you know what I mean) to fight off murderous secret agents, evade assassins, blaze through gunfire, walk away from exploding buildings (and helicopters, and a commercial airplane) without looking, and get back in time for Miss "Day's" wedding, all while discovering that all they need is love, in the 2010 spy romp known as "Knight and Day."
In case you're wondering, no, I did not pay to get in, because I went with a very generous group, which consisted of me, some obviously female friends, and one very generous chaperone of theirs. In case you're wondering, I was drawn to the movie by Tom Cruise's charm, which...
Wait, I didn't mean...
Like the last movie I reviewed, "Knight and Day" is a vehicle for a movie star who has fallen from grace as of late. In Stallone's case, it was the result of both his questionable decisions with the Rocky franchise and...well, "Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot." In Tom Cruise's case, his fall from grace was signaled by him going on Oprah and proceeding to act like...hmmm...the words "douche" and "tard" come to mind. (L. Ron Hubbard certainly hasn't helped matters much either.) Stallone, of course, was able to redeem himself with his updates of the Rocky and Rambo franchises, and by teaming up with nearly a dozen badasses in one movie. Meanwhile, Tom Cruise was able to redeem himself by trying to kill Hitler.
If you're wondering what on earth drew me to this movie, I'll admit that I'm into "spy" movies, and comedies. So when I saw the trailers for this spy comedy featuring a batshit crazy Tom Cruise disarming a plane full of enemy spies, exchanging banter with a bewildered Cameron Diaz in the middle of a car chase, and sheepishly admitting that he intends to "shoot them" instead of engaging in polite conversation with the people out to kill him, I thought to myself, "Well, this looks like an interesting and hilarious movie featuring a quirky, possibly insane scientologist actor who has finally decided to embrace his quirky insanity and play it up for all it's worth. Certainly more promising than that strangely similar movie from three weeks before. I look forward to this movie of quirks and insanity."
Apparently I don't have the most discerning eye when it comes to trailers, which is how I ended up watching a...*shudder*...romantic comedy. It has equal parts "romance" and "comedy," but still, not what I was expecting. To say that I’m against romance (even badly-written romance) altogether is an inaccurate assumption. However, to say that I’m against a romantic plot that ends up consuming the movie as a whole hits the nail on the head. Is it the marketing department’s fault that I saw this less as a globe-trotting romantic adventure and more…well, something else? Well, as they say, “Fool me once, shame on you, Tom Cruise. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
A good deal of my criticism comes from measuring this movie against what I expected it to be. Since it’s essentially a spy romp anyway, I wasn’t expecting it to stray too far from the tried-and-true action adventure formula. However, I wasn’t expecting the “good guys” and “bad guys” to be so easily delineated from one another. Why can’t that ever be left to the viewer’s imagination anymore? Agent Knight’s character arc would have been more interesting if the viewer had been left in the dark as to whether or not he was supposed to be a sympathetic character. Considering Cameron Diaz’s character was thrown right in the middle of Cruise's mad race against time and enemy spies, I’m willing to admit that they played this mystery up for all it was worth in the first few acts of the movie. However, I think Hollywood in general fails to appreciate the importance of maintaining a certain level of mystique and ambiguity, especially now that the superhero craze lately has given us an influx of just plain “good” vs. “evil” characters. Nothing’s ever left to mystery anymore.
There is chemistry between the two lead characters. From the first few scenes in the airport, you can see the budding attraction between their characters, as June is swept up into a separate, deadlier world from our own, with Agent Knight acting as a sort of guardian angel for her as they race from country to country. From the IMDb discussion quoted above, one scene comes to mind, specifically the car chase where Cruise is essentially coaching Diaz through a deadly car chase, as “Roy quietly helps June out of the car with a soft voice, and leads her behind the car, all the time reassuring her that she was doing good and complimenting her dress as you hear bullets ricocheting every which way.” In other words, yes, chicks are still allowed to fall in love in Tom Cruise.
Of course, you would think getting shot at all the time would outweigh whatever attraction is being kindled. Part of the appeal of this movie is watching these two characters from two different worlds interact and slowly grow closer, but the old saying about opposites attracting flies out the window when you have a possibly insane, crazy-skilled black ops agent (with some stalker-ish tendencies, as the beach scene in the middle of the movie attests to) lugging around an admittedly attractive blonde who has no business in the cloak-and-dagger business and who basically seems to be slowing him down. Yes, I can see the sexual attraction and all, but at what point do these two personalities actually click?
In fact, I think Jean Grey said it best: "Wolverine is the bad boy who sweeps the girl off her feet. Cyclops is the guy girls settle down with and marry." Or something to that effect.
The action, as you’d imagine, is where it’s at. From the scene on the airplane, to the car chases, to the gunfights, the action scenes are exquisitely filmed. As usual with the big blockbuster flicks these days, the cinematography does take its cues from the Bourne series, with several close-up shots to keep things almost needlessly intense. However, unlike my “Expendables” review last week, these scenes are still enough to give you a general sense of tension, as well as…you know, a sense of where the scene is going, as opposed to…what was it I said about the Sly-dog? “Shit blowing up"? (Considering they probably weren't willing to give Cruise access to high-grade explosives, that's to be expected...)
So overall, is "Knight and Day" a good movi...oh, fuck it, I hated it. I hated the idea that anyone could fall for its lead. I hated the idea that his mild-mannered co-star was made for him, as much as he was made for her. I hated that I'd gotten stuck in a romantic comedy with a room full of middle-aged women. I hated the prospect of getting suckered into a movie like this. Hated the insult that I was supposed to root for Agent
Note: The Brewsky is an enthusiastic contributor and movie reviewer who will be forced to watch the Sex and the City movies for next week. Seriously, Brewsky, you think that was bad? We will make good on our threat if you don't stop with the swearing. Our readers don't come here to read "F" this and "Sh**" that...
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