Review of Knight and Day (2010) by Myffubs — 14 Aug 2011

Knight and Day is a fairly decent action/comedy/romance flick. It nails the action and comedy genres, but it doesn't put heart into its romance, and it suffers for it. It starts out well, breathing life into its characters in what would be termed as a "meet cute" if it weren't for the violent action sequences that permeate it.

The film continues on a lively enough pace and sets up some very excellently choreographed chases and fights, but loses momentum about halfway through. This could be due to any number of causes: poorly-established characters, a plot that functions only to drive one action sequence to the next, or the increasingly implausible attraction between its leads.

Well, being that the leads are Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, it's plausible that they would be attracted to each other, but mostly on a superficial level. The actors are surprisingly good, but have little chemistry in their scenes together.

There's a funny-in-its-implausibility scene in which a pouty Diaz wants Cruise, attempting to take cover from gunfire, to, I don't know, kiss her or something. Noticing this, he calmly walks towards her and does.

We get the feeling that if either character were a terribly deep thinker, they might say to the other, "I'm sorry. I don't think this is working out." They're simply going through the [e]motions of a typical romance film.

Regardless, Knight and Day is rousing in most of its kinetic action scenes, and it's often fairly funny and perfectly pitched, a task that most films of this sort don't quite manage. If only the romance had been handled as capably.

As it stands, KaD is an enjoyable but ultimately forgettable popcorn flick.