The Movie Diorama
Vanilla Sky 2? Hmm...maybe not. Charlie's Angel? Nope, not feeling that either. Mission Impossible 4.5? Getting warmer. Tom Cruise: Typical Action Movie 9? Much better! I mean what do you expect Cruise to be doing in an action blockbuster other than shooting enemies, riding a motorbike in the middle of Sevilla with Diaz on top on him, jumping off cars in rush hour and well...just being himself. Nothing new here. A secret agent is on the run from the CIA who are tasked with obtaining Zephyr, a modernised perpetual energy battery. An innocent woman boarding a flight gets caught up in the shenanigans...and so the mindless action commences. This is easily Mangold's weakest directorial effort. I appreciate the buoyancy of his style, the pace and narrative felt light as it speeds along a nearly two hour runtime. The action set pieces and sequences were executed cleanly, maintaining frantic chaos with subtle visual comedy that is accompanied by Powell's Parisian score. Cruise commits to the stunts and explosive action as always, which is the primary appeal for this films. His chemistry with Diaz is perfectly satisfactory as the two bounce off each other well. However, no film will convince me that Diaz is a good actress. Again, like her previous credits, she overacts every little emotion. Shocked? She'll start screaming flailing her arms around. Sad? She'll drop to the floor in a puddle of tears. Happy? She'll laugh for about an hour. I just can't warm to her, it's all so false. The plot is a typical formulaic secret agent story where the rapid pacing conceals its genericism. The A-list supporting cast were wasted and sidelined to solely focus on the main stars. And, to top it all, the usage of green screen was highly noticeable and detracts from the production's authenticity. Yet, I simply just cannot hate this film. Sometimes a lighthearted mindless blockbuster just does the trick to fill that empty gap in our minds. Knight and Day consistently does that for me.
Michael Ledo
MINOR PLOT SPOILERSThe name Knight comes from the real name of Tom Cruise aka Rob Miller aka Matthew Knight. Plus he uses a toy knight to conceal an experimental battery that can power a whole city. I am sure there may be some other knight symbols, such as knight in shining armor etc., but the movie isn't designed to be that deep. Cruise bumps into Diaz (June) in an airport as they get on the same flight. After some innocent flirting Diaz goes into the airplane restroom and does some primping, trying to figure out how to hook up with Rob Miller (Cruise). While Diaz is looking in the mirror checking out her T&A, Cruise is being attacked by everyone on the plane. Diaz comes out, has a drink with Cruise who explains that the pilots are dead.Later in the movie Diaz attempts to have a serious conversation with her former bf. As she explains about the airplane, he ignores her and tries to talk about "the relationship." The movie is filled with these numerous turn arounds, most of which come near the end. One chase scene reminded us of that "Mission Impossible" criticized impossible train explosion scene, as Cruise jumps to the wind shield of an automobile which Diaz is driving. Crusie jumps around building tops like The Phantom and at one point Diaz models a red bikini for us. Eventually Diaz gets into the whole spy thing and decides to take matters in her own hands. The movie is fun and clever. The action has impossible chase scenes, but what action movie doesn't. It would make a great date movie.Occasional dropping of the F-bomb
drhajermohdd
Simply awesome.. each scene and dialogues are different..
Art Vandelay
In a world over-flowing with stories and the talent to bring them to life, why does Hollywood keep cranking out such unmitigated piles of cr@p? The crazy Scientologist does what he does best - shows his teeth. Diaz can't act to save her life, either, but unlike Cruise she's not pretty to look at so I have no idea how she keeps getting cast in movies. There is no wit, no tension, no plot. Just posing. Producers should have taken some of the salaries paid to Cruise and Diaz and hired a competent writer or two, because this story is a mess. In fact, it plays as though they were just filming random scenes that got spliced together in the editing room. Seriously, if you were to take the movie, chop it up scene by scene and put each scene in its own container, jumbled all the canisters on a giant drum, and then reassembled the scenes in random order, this movie would make as much sense. If I'd paid $10+ to watch this at the local Googleplex rather than catching it for free on AMC, I would take a leave of absence from work and spend the next year boycotting that theatre. I give the Scientologist's teeth 2 stars. Everything else gets zero.
AD
