Cast: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Grace, Paul Dano, Marc Blucas, Viola Davis, Jordi Mollà

Category: Action, Comedy, Thriller

The action-spy-thriller-with-a-giant-MacGuffin, not similar to M:I 3 at all. But, lucky for Cruise and Diaz, this film is at least different enough from Vanilla Sky to keep me from taking another low blow.

Instead, Cruise plays former CIA agent Roy Miller, a man who’s recently gone AWOL and has possession of the top secret Rabbit’s Foot-I mean, Zephyr battery (I’m finished, I swear). Desperate to keep it out of the wrong hands, he winds up with the help of Diaz’s June Havens, an ordinary civilian who has taken a liking to the maverick (And so ends my list of Tom Cruise movie puns).

In what is pretty much the definition of an average movie, there is hardly any aspect of this film that stands out as either surprisingly good or offensively bad. Both Cruise and Diaz deliver the goods in the acting department, playing to the nature of each one’s character nicely, but without overshadowing one another or the rest of their no-name cast.

The overwhelming majority of positive reviews for Knight And Day lavished praise on the effortless on-screen chemistry between the two leads. Maybe it was because I had this in mind while watching, or maybe it was just a case of sheep following the shepherd, but I didn’t see anything to suggest that their timing, interplay or ability to improvise was anything above and beyond what one should expect in a film boasting two of the most bankable stars in the industry. Not particularly memorable, but kept my attention, and complimented the quick, impulsive pace of the film after a sluggish start.

At about the one-hour mark, the film progressed into a series of events that could have had real potential, if only they were explored and developed properly. As more details about the Zephyr and its connection to the CIA begin to unravel, we actually start to question who are the goodies and the baddies after all. It feels as if Mangold decided a couple of scenes later that he was trying to do to much with a film designed to appeal to the masses. As a result, this character conundrum is quickly settled and, disappointingly, the film hops right back on the beaten track.

The climax is entertaining enough, but the following epilogue is what leaves the viewer with a truly sour aftertaste. While watching it, I was reminded of this quote from Robert Downey Jnr. in perennial favourite Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005): ‘Look, I hate it too. In movies where the studio gets all paranoid about a downer ending so the guy shows up, he’s magically alive on crutches, I hate that. Why not bring them all back?’

While this quote has little, if anything, to do with Tom Cruise on crutches, it does nicely summarize how I feel about the ending. Given the opportunity to do something a little different, any prospect of innovation is thrown out swiftly, and replaced by an eye-rolling ending with even worse dialogue. As I’m sure you’ve worked out for yourself by now, this film is nothing new, providing mediocre escapism for two hours on a lazy day.

5/10.

Author Bio: Johnny Hollywood

One day, a good friend started calling me Hollywood because of my never-ending desire to talk about films, and the nickname stuck like glue. There’s only one thing I love more than reviewing movies, and that’s discussing them with everybody and anybody, so never hesitate to tell me what you think about my work.