Knight & Day Review

Take the essence of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, combine it with your standard boy meets girl story, add a dash of Mission Impossible and you have Knight & Day. It may not be nearly as clever as Mr. and Mrs. Smith but, it does have that same charm… Sort of. But for the record, no movie is this quirky by accident so, as long as they were going for that, this the film isn’t a failure.

When June is heading home on a flight to Boston, she bumps into a strange man that immediately takes a liking to her. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that the man is not who she thinks he is. The real question is, was it his really odd sense of humor, orrrr the fact that he took out an entire plane full of armed agents…

I’d like to take a moment to talk about Cruise’s performance. He is \charming in this film, but he is essentially just playing Ethan Hunt with a much more laid back attitude about life. Roy Miller is your standard spy/ladies man. But regardless of how cookie cutter he is, it’s still nice to watch Cruise do his  thing. And like Les Gorssman, it is clear he is enjoying himself and not taking the role too seriously.

As for Cameron Diaz, well, she’s just playing Cameron Diaz. I did like the set up they give to her character which helps explain away the reasons why she is able to do what she does in the third act but, that doesn’t come without a bit of wtf…

Now, as I said in the beginning, if the quirkiness of the film was done on purpose and was in fact written into the script, then the film works, if not, then they failed on every level to make a Mr. and Mrs. Smith knock-off. But, I have trouble believing that a film is this quirky and clunky by accident. That said, the action is OK. I say OK and not good because like the film, it too has some pacing issues. The story it self is standard, but charming none the less.

Overall, Knight & Day works for the most part. It is a charming film that needs some work. A real date crowd pleaser. If you go into this expecting nothing more than some fairly written quips and OK action, they you will be pleased.

6.5/10