Movie Review: KNIGHT AND DAY (2010) – Tom Cruise Parodies Himself

All right, this day was eventually going to come. The day I’d have to suffer through a Tom Cruise movie post the fall out of the whole, Katie Holmes affair. Granted I loved his bold attempt in TROPIC THUNDER, and VALKYRIE was awesome, but the trailers of KNIGHT AND DAY seemed like a pathetic comeback attempt into mainstream, pop culture, box office success. Unfortunately, I was right.

Rating: 3 Out Of 5 Stars

exciting stuff…

KNIGHT AND DAY follows a super spy (surprise!) Tom Cruise who’s in the midst of a mission gone tits up, and along the way runs into, and entangles the innocent Cameron Diaz in his escapades. A brief interaction with Diaz’s character causes the ‘bad guys’ to assume she is in cahoots with Cruise’s character, therefore endengering her life, and causing Cruise to bring her along for the ride. Oh and of course, she can’t be a normal every day person, she has to be quirky and a typical girl, but one who’s also in cars. You know… just to break up the stereotypical blonde bimbo shtick a li’l.

That really is the entire concept of this film. It’s a supposed action comedy on wheels and it just keeps breezing by without really making much sense or providing much entertainment. It’s just very lackluster, through and through. The problems lie in the premise really.

For this type of a comedy to work, where you have ditzy, clumsy, nervous and clueless chick team up with smooth, trained and precise super agent spy… you have to believe she’s really really stupid. Which is effortless to do since Diaz in a comedy is exactly that, incrediously stupid and blonde. And that’s where it all falls apart. The audience is supposed to find humour in every stupid and dumbass thing that she does, which Cruise has to bail her out of. Scene after scene of intense action adventure where Cruise is jumping off motorcycles and ejaculating bullets at the bad guys all around–flawlessly I might add– while Diaz stands there, screaming her ass off… wears thin after, oh… ALWAYS!

ugh…

The one surprising thing really, was Cruise in this type of a role. Until the end, Cruise played a consistently creepy and almost psychotic character that is just eerily funny at best. It’s not the usual stuff he does, but it’s done well, again, for a while.

KNIGHT AND DAY works as a mindless entertainer that runs in the background during a party that one can tune in and out of. However even with one’s complete attention, the movie fails to convey any sort of emotion other than irritation at Cameron Diaz for doing… that thing she does.

Get The Blu ray