Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussion

[Aragorn]

Tom Cruise is a covert agent sent on a mission he was never meant to complete, and Cameron Diaz is a woman caught between the agent and those he claims set him up. As their globetrotting adventure erupts into a maze of double-crosses, close escapes and false identities, they come to realize that all they can count no is each other.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0cSz62nq9Y[/yt]


The good reviews:

The wonder is that Cruise and Diaz are effective enough in their roles that they’re not overwhelmed by all the commotion surrounding them. They make the movie work because they cheerfully project that they know it’s utter nonsense and pitch in to enjoy the fun. I’ve been reading that movie stars can no longer “sell” a blockbuster movie. Audiences buy the concept, brand name, packaging, whatever. If that’s true, which I doubt, it would mean a victory of technology over humans. If it comes true, it will be because movies have lost interest in creating and shaping characters we care about — because they’re using actors as insert shots in special effects.

Cruise's presence also helps keep things light, breezy and watchable when the action — and the story itself — spin ridiculously out of control. That's the pervasive joke in James Mangold's film, based on a script by Patrick O'Neill (and an action picture is yet another random entry in the director's filmography, following "Girl, Interrupted,""Walk the Line" and the remake of "3:10 to Yuma"). "Knight and Day" is supposed to be a mission that's impossible, but gleefully so.

Watching "Knight And Day" a month after the release of "Killers," the first thing that struck me is that a side-by-side comparison of the first thirty minutes of each film is a perfect lesson in the difference between a movie star and a pretty face. They both start from a similar premise, although written in very different ways. In both, the lead actor is a spy/assassin who meets a totally normal girl and then drags her into his world. Ashton Kutcher seems focused on looking cool in his film, working as hard as he can to strike a pose like each scene in a still page in a fashion magazine. Kutcher's still working the same spoiled pout he picked up in the film "Spread," and it's sort of ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Cruise is well aware of the value of a precisely struck pose to sell an action scene, but he also seems dedicated in "Knight and Day" on deconstructing that pose and poking fun at it at the same time. It's a tricky thing to pull off, tone-wise, and if you do it wrong, you're making "Hudson Hawk." Or you're just making an action movie. More often than not, filmmakers trying for this sweet spot where you are gently ribbing the exact thing you're doing fail at it. They tip their hand in some way and the whole thing just falls apart, collapses under the weight of all the clever.

The bad reviews:

Logic and plausibility take a holiday in this nonstop actioner that counts on stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz to sell the nonsense.

The locations change as often as the outfits in "Knight and Day," a high-energy, low-impact caper-comedy that labors to bring a measure of wit, romance and glamour to an overworked spy-thriller template. Busy when it should be fizzy, and rather too fond of using a barrage of bullets or sudden blackout to cut short its so-so comic banter, this inelegant contraption still delivers the requisite eyeful, mostly by way of Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

There is a ton of talent wasted in James Mangold's "Knight and Day," a movie that relies on heart-pounding sequences, collisions and high body counts to distract from Patrick O'Neill's flimsy script, which really doesn't make a lick of sense. Off the bat, there is a woefully-miscast Cameron Diaz as a love interest for Cruise; they have manufactured chemistry at its worst. She alternates between screeching, making googly eyes at him and looking confused -- it's a role better suited to someone like Jessica Alba, who can't do much else. Even more tragic is seeing Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis and Paul Dano stuck in such unmeaty roles.

 

[Broccoli]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

It looks like it will be cheesy fun.

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

More good reviews:

Whatever the sins of the movie - the casual killing of dozens of people in an offhand way chief among them, though the tacked-on romantic elements are no great shakes, either - are for the most part softened by Cruise's assured performance. An underrated actor, Cruise gives Roy the confidence a man who is willing to leap from a speeding motorcycle onto the hood of a speeding car in the middle of a freeway would surely need, all with a glint in his eye that says he's not taking the whole thing too seriously.

In “Knight and Day,’’ it’s mostly for the better. The movie’s a piece of high-octane summer piffle: stylish, funny, brainless without being too obnoxious about it, and Cruise is its manic animating principle. Whenever he zigs or zags, the film races to keep up with him, jettisoning cars, helicopters, and human beings as necessary. At the same time, “Knight’’ tweaks the actor’s “Mission Impossible’’ seriousness by giving us Roy Miller, a super-spy so capable it makes him giddy with delight. Roy’s high on himself, and for the first time in a Tom Cruise movie, we’re meant to laugh. “I’m pretty good at what I do, June,’’ he tells the movie’s heroine, and the gag is that for once Roy’s being modest.

More bad reviews:

So what is missing? Oh, I don’t know — wit, fun, sexual tension, risk, originality. Maybe one or two other things. But will anyone notice? It is just possible that “Knight and Day” will earn some admiration because it is not a sequel or a spinoff and employs two stars who refuse to act like or resemble teenagers. The same might be said for “Killers,” of course, which was pretty much forgotten the day after it arrived in theaters a few weeks ago. “Knight and Day” may do better because of its superior pedigree and its noticeably greater expense (All those locations! All that C.G.I.!), but “Killers,” which stars Ashton Kutcher as the superassassin and Katherine Heigl as the shrieking blonde, is a marginally better movie.

Nothing on that list suggests Mangold would be ideal for an international-man-of-mystery bash. Nothing suggests he'd be wrong for it, either. A director and a couple of movie stars, however, can go only so far on fumes, and screenwriter Patrick O'Neill galumphs through the paces while an unGODly amount of computer-generated effects work flies around the actors' heads. Stampeding bulls in Spain, cars flipping end over end: It's all here, and often in flames. But when the action's pitched at such a ridiculous level of hyperbole, the laughs barely have enough oxygen to qualify as wheezes.

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

Is anyone here going to check this out or will this thread fall like a rock? Armond White says this movie lacks what he loved about From Paris With Love and Jonah Hex, so it must be a pretty damn good movie!

 

[Smiley]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

It's not even out until Friday in the U.S. Patience, grasshopper.

It looks like one of the best of the dumb action comedies given to us by Hollywood this year. In other words, I'm more likely to see it than The Other Guys, The A-Team, and The Killers, but I'm not that likely to see it on my own initiative.

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

It came out today in the USA.

 

[Worf2DS9]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

The trailers look really fun, so I may check this out.

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

Why is the film called Knight and Day? I originally thought this was a reference to the character's names but it's not.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

Why is the film called Knight and Day? I originally thought this was a reference to the character's names but it's not.

There's no real explanation given why the film has that title.

 

[Nardpuncher]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

It should be called Scientologist saves a Used Up Crackhead.

 

[Broccoli]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

It should be called Scientologist saves a Used Up Crackhead.

As far as I know Cameron Diaz isn't a Scientologist...

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

Why is the film called Knight and Day? I originally thought this was a reference to the character's names but it's not.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Cruise carries around a McGuffin in a plastic knight. Also, his real name is revealed to be Knight.

Saw it. It's an average Hollywood action movie. The trailer makes it look much funnier and more fun than it is, but it's not bad. The ending was a bit indefinite. In the vernacular, I'd call it a rental.

 

[Nardpuncher]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

It should be called Scientologist saves a Used Up Crackhead.

As far as I know Cameron Diaz isn't a Scientologist...

Nice!

 

[NuFan]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

Pass.

 

[Gaith]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

^^Indeed. Besides, nine years into the Afghanistan war, the longest in our history, perhaps the notion that falling in love requires an accompanying hail of bullets just isn't as charming as it was back when Mr. and Mrs. Smith came out?

 

[Mr Light]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

Just saw this today. Like A-Team it was a fun action flick with a good sense of humor. Tom Cruise was very funny and charming and likable, and Diaz was alright. Good action scenes. Good humor. Looked expensive. Good mindless fun... though I did like A-Team more.

 

[BenRoethig]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

Why is the film called Knight and Day? I originally thought this was a reference to the character's names but it's not.

There's no real explanation given why the film has that title.

Spoiler: answer

Cruise's character Roy Miller's real name is Matthew Knight. The name is on the mailbox at the parents'

 

[auntiehill]

Re: Knight and Day (Cruise, Diaz, James Mangold) - Grading & Discussio

I give it an Average. It was simple, mindless fun with big stunts and explosions. It was mildly amusing, but missing something---it was slightly too plastic and perhaps a bit too clichéd, but it was just a goofy, spy-centric, popcorn flick. It didn't have the joyfulness of The A-Team but it OK. I'd say get a matinée, so you don't have to pay full price, or wait and catch it as a rental.