Knight and Day: Been There Done That

Poor Tom Cruise can't catch a break lately. His last few films have done badly and he really hasn't had a hit since Jerry Mcquire. That's probably why they're looking into doing a Les Grossman movie, a great role as a bit part from Tropic Thunder but hardly something to spin off a whole movie. The worst part is I like this Tom Cruise more than the cocky hotshot he played to death in the eighties and nineties. Films like Valkyrie and Magnolia were great roles and while the private Cruise is bat shit insane, his movie star continues to shine. It is perhaps that very reason why his films do better overseas than here because we can't get the image of Tom jumping up and down on Oprah's couch like a hyperactive, retarded monkey screaming "I love her!" Yuck. But as an actor, he's become quite good. And while he is very good in this role, I think both Cruise and his costar Cameron Diaz are both miscast.
The plot is nothing new but well executed none the less. Tom's a spy, Roy Miller/Knight, and Diaz's June are brought together in unlikely circumstances and are forced to work together to save each other's lives. After a great sequence in a plane where Cruise kills everyone on the plane but June, who is also unaware until it's all over, the two are briefly separated in Boston. When Tom realizes the bad guys are after June as well as him, thinking they are connected in some way, he kidnaps her and a race around the globe is born. Purely paint by numbers plot and a Mcguffin (if you don't know what that is look it up. I can't teach you everything) involving a battery. Don't ask. But Diaz and Cruise do shine, the stunts are good, and the constant drugging of June in tough situations is really funny.
But here's the hitch. Test audiences say Tom came out crazy and Diaz looks old. They were right on both counts. Diaz needs to stay out of the sun for a while. Her age is starting to show. Can't decide whether that's bad makeup or poor judgement. And Tom should be looking at roles that aren't as manic as his character needed to be. At one point, Chris Tucker and Eva Mendez were going to star. I think that would have been a better movie. As a matter of fact, lots of people would have been better and the screenplay sure needed work, first timer Patrick O'Neill's immaturity shows. All in all, not bad. Not great. Thought the Killers was better actually. The stunts in Boston were cool as was the scene with the running of the bulls. Rent it.

3 stars out 5