Back in the 1960s, when the James Bond films were enjoying massive success all
over the world, there arose a new genre of action films--the Bond film rip-offs.
Movies like Deadlier Than The Male, and the Matt Helm films both tried to emulate the Bond film success while also trying to spoof them at the same time. Knight And Day, the latest popcorn movie starring Tom Cruise, has that same Bond spoof flavor to it, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Cruise stars here as Roy Miller, a super secret agent who’s transporting a super secret technology known as the zephyr. It’s a renewable source of energy--like the sun--contained within a small battery.
Armed with this MacGuffin (aka the object of desire that propels the plot of a mystery/thriller film) Cruise is trying to get it past the security checkpoints at the Wichita airport when he runs into June (Cameron Diaz) a sultry blonde with a thing for classic cars who’s transporting engine parts back to her garage shop. Cruise manages to slip the zephyr in and out of her pack without June being any wiser about it. Yet she still winds up on the same plane as him--along with a troupe of assassins who’re all trying to kill Cruise while June is freshening herself up in the bathroom.
Thanks to the Mission Impossible films, Cruise already has a starring vehicle where he can pretend to be 007 (even though the lone-wolf approach that Cruise plays in those films is nothing what the original IM series was all about), so Knight And Day takes a more comedic angle on the whole spy vs. spy genre. This is the type of creampuff movie role that Cruise, the Big Hollywood Star, was born to play. It doesn’t require too much exertion of his limited acting skills (let’s face it: while Cruise may not be a horrible actor, he still basically plays the same guy in every movie he does) and plus he shares screen time with a co-star who’s much better.
Cameron Diaz really made this film worthwhile for me. She has a natural knack for comedy, and her ‘innocent girl caught up in a spy game’ shtick is extremely engaging to watch. Director James Mangold keeps things moving along at a brisk pace--although he seems to believe that, just because a film is a comedy, the audience will forgive some glaring plot holes and lapses in logic. Just like a Bond film, there are some nice action set pieces, with the plot taking Roy and June to exotic spots all over the world. Knight And Day is ultimately a very silly, and fun, romp--and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you’re in the mood for it.
--SF
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