Knight & Day is one of those big budget action movies with big name stars that you pretty much go into having the entire thing mapped out in your head before your booty even hits the seat and the first kernel of popcorn is ingested. However this film surpassed any preconceived ideas that I had about it’s entertainment value. Tom plays Roy Miller, a Cheshire grinning super shady ‘agent like’ character that keeps accidentally bumping into June, (played by Cameron Diaz) in the airport. Well we all know when that goes down there’s some sort of exchange taking place, it’s just a question of what that we wait around for. June gets bumped from her flight and Roy comments as he gets on the plane ‘Some things happen for a reason.’ June eventually gets on the plane and seats herself in Roy’s vicinity to get her flirt on. When she gets up to go to the bathroom is when all hell breaks loose. She comes back, and Roy tries to clue her in on the mêlée that has happened whilst she was in dispose, and she believes he’s only kidding with her, until she sees that no one is flying the plane. The action takes off like a shot. Our couple manages to not die in a fiery plane crash, while they are escaping the wreck in a corn field, Roy explains to June that the bad guys are coming after her and this is what they will say. Don’t trust them no matter what, oh and drink this to take the edge off. She does and it’s lights out for her. She wakes up in her own bed in her own house…somehow.
The next day her sort of boyfriend, seeing on TV that the plane she was on crashed was worried and came by to see if she ever made it home. They go out for breakfast and she tries to explain Roy to him, when Roy shows up at the diner to kidnap her; and off we go again. This time on a wild car chase on the highway with the bad guys with some of the craziest stunts ever. They kept it fresh somehow with the silliness of the situations, and June’s panicking about the situation like a normal person would given the circumstances. She’s just priceless. You can see her getting a little crushy crush on Roy boy, and you wonder when it’s all going to come to a head. Little by little Roy feeds her information on a need to know basis, however when he isn’t around; the bad guys are grabbing June up and telling her the opposite so she doesn’t know who to believe. The film does a good job with not overwhelming you with information right away, and keeping you in the dark along with our girl June. You think you are putting the pieces together and you know who the bad guys are; then you aren’t quite right. This movie has delightful twists, and fantastic heart pulsing action. Cruise plays Roy’s ‘rogue’ just right, so you feel for the guy and wonder how he’s going to get out of this alive.
Yes, the film does have all the core elements, things blowing up, car chases, cool gadgets, lots of bad guys, exotic locales and punch lines; but it’s so fast and furious that you are caught up in the fun before you realize you are watching a formula. But this formula works like a charm.
