The Philippine Online Chronicles

It’s a terrible title. I know. When I heard the title, I wanted to skip the film because if they weren’t going to put in the effort to make a good title, how could I expect the filmmakers to deliver anything else?

Thank goodness that the effort that they put into thinking of a title is inversely proportional to the care that they took in making this an action-filled, genuinely funny, spy-action-comedy romp.

Starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, who were last seen together in Vanilla Sky (a movie I enjoyed but most critics didn’t as it is admittedly inferior to its source material, Abre Los Ojos), the movie finds in these two a perfect pairing. It’s just too bad though that this hadn’t been made, say, ten years ago. If this had come out in the late-90s early-Zips then these two would have more star/drawing power. As it stands though, popularity with younger audiences or not, they and this film deliver on a madcap premise that isn’t in the intellectual ballpark, but is definitely a homerun when it comes to audacious summer offerings.

Diaz plays June, a good gal who bumps into the mysterious Roy played by Cruise as they are both at the airport getting ready to board a plane. The two make a seeming connection onboard, but there are larger things afoot. And when Roy takes out the whole plane, crash-lands it, drugs June, and warns her that the Feds will be after her, we are off and running towards a great big action adventure.

Cruise and Diaz play well off each other, and the apparent chemistry between the two shines in the many comedic moments. In the most absurd of situations these two pull off perfect deliveries that work to make the situations things we’re willing to swallow as plausible in the context of the film, as well as making us laugh out loud with the sheer fun of it all.

For example, with June in a car with Feds, Roy mounts his rescue. We see June watching Roy as he rides up on a motorcycle. The camera swings back to show June’s reaction, then back out the windshield to see the motorcycle flying in the air with Roy nowhere in sight. After a few seconds Roy’s on the car’s hood, hanging on and firing bullets while saying, “June, that’s a beautiful dress.” It’s irresistibly fun, and the visuals, writing, and performances all lock in perfectly to deliver moments that, in other hands might have been cheap and easy.

Cruise’s performance here is remarkable. He’s played a spy on a few occasions before, but always in serious contexts. Let loose to have fun here, he plays Roy as a guy who has the skills of Ethan Hunt, but the demeanor of Maxwell Smart. He’s a bit full of himself and his skills, but enough of a goofball that he still comes off as likeable. Cruise’s performance delivers some real fun here, and that fun is infectious.

But even more fun, funny, and infectious is the energy that Diaz pours into her role. Diaz started her career as the pretty face in The Mask, but over the years she has shown her ability in dramatic roles. Here she shows a good sense of timing and a great sense for getting laughs. June could have been another bland blonde. She’s not exactly unique or fresh, but she is fun to watch, and Diaz’s reactions make for great comedy.

It’s hard to capture funny moments, and even the funniest of people slip. It’s a good thing then that James Mangold is at the helm of this big production. Behind the great action flick 3:10 to Yuma as well as the biopic Walk the Line and Girl, Interrupted, he takes on his first big blockbuster and does remarkably well in fusing elements of rom-com with big action sequences. His handling of the comedic sequences, making full use of great lines and sight gags as well as fun set-ups, makes for the kind of movie that summer popcorn flick fans go for.

Now it may sound that I’m all praises here, but it’s only within the context of the summer blockbuster. There’s no big artistic depth, no attempts to show something about the human condition, or any other such aspirations in this film.

What it sets out to do is overwhelm us with laughs and action. It throws jokes and big set-pieces at us, while weaving in a little love story and some supposed warmth and sympathy. Which is to say this isn’t a thinking flick, it won’t have you sitting and meditating about the meaning of life, the way we treat each other, or anything else.

It’s a big fun caper, with lots of big chase sequences (and boy are those chases big budget, heart-pounding fun), shoot-outs, fisticuffs, and wacky funny situations. Despite resorting to one of the most overused set-ups, a drugged character acting funny, Diaz’s performance and the way it’s all handled makes it fresh and entertaining. And that goes for most of the movie, which plays with a lot of things that we’ve seen before, but offers it up to us in new ways.

In a summer season where the stakes are high and the attempt it to go big, Knight and Day goes big and delivers. It isn’t big on the concept and idea development level, but what it lacks in brain it makes up for in brawn. It wins you over by being both funny and having terrific action sequences, both of these things balanced perfectly with each other. Nothing surprising, neither the story nor the twists that it takes, but then that’s par for the summer movie course. More important is a movie’s ability to entertain and offer up an enjoyable experience, and in these two respects Knight and Day delivers.