Knight and Day: Review By Bane. Ferguson

Good chemistry does not make a good feature film. This film is so over indulgent, do we care Cruise looks good for his age, do we care this is his comedy follow up to his great short role as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder. DO WE CARE?!!! DO WE?!!! DO WE?!!!!! Well some do, and instead of going for the usual director they go for the least obvious James Mangold . The director of Walk the Line and 3:10 To Yuma one of the best remade westerns ever created you would be thinking, what is his next project? So you would think by the looks of the trailer that his follow up would be exceptionally good, a comedy capper, with two big A-Lister names, in this CIA thriller. So they unravel the big fat red curtain thick with dust during the wait now here it is, smack bang, touch down from the first minute I knew (and after reading so many other dreadful reviews) that after all of them reviews and after actually watching it that this was a maelstrom, a catastrophe of a movie.

It starts off with June (Cameron Diaz) bumping quite harshly into our Mr. Cruise (but whose the bumper-was it by coincidence) and here it is Roy Miller a mad cap agent, most wanted, soon after being knocked off the list on flight June is set about her wits, when she is diverted back on the plane, which was reserved for a fist fight, so Miller has to set about his wits and save this damsel in distress, from getting her head knocked off by speeding bullets. So further more he knocks many agents out and sets them in their seats for when June comes out of her long toilet trip all is good, Miller explaining alls good in the hood, she not actually getting the hints that he's a mass murdering sly spy, soon plane crashes, what follows blurs, June at cafe, fire fighter flirting. Shooting, screaming blurred vision, June getting tranquilized every 2 minutes, and the question WHATS IT ALL FOR? Even though as much as the set up and beginning is rallying. It takes its time setting the scene so when we do know the specific reason for this film its 20 minutes before the end. It's about data energy saved on a memory stick type thing.

Directing: From the trailer with it catchy one liners, its slick look, the two main leads chemistry sizzling, what we didn't pick up was the story, and only saw the decent bits all cut, chopped, socked, to feed the gullible audience. What Mangold fails to use with his skill is give it a feel of a thriller instead of ditching it halfway through and trying to take the helm of let's say Todd Phillips, trying to focus on the comedy elements and give it a organic blend. But what this film needed was always the feel of a thriller and some specific scenes that centred around comedy, if the comedy wasn't so leading up to the moment it would have worked. But you sit there listening or watching the joke go on and you think when's the punch line, the little da-da-DUM of the drums. If he went with it, let it simmer then stir it, let it flow and get its groove, at least let himself indulge in it.

ACTORS: This film has two big names, and they work, the sequence in which Miller introduces himself to Junes ex in the cafe was slick, funny, mad cap, over the top comically edited in the trailer got to the point, instead the original version in the film was too long, too trying to simmer up this bonus character that only appears for a moment. But the script is too contrived.

ACTION: The visual effects of the car getting turned on its side in the alleyway was impressive, but the raging bulls, with Tom and Cameron just gliding through, past the matador, everything seemed to be rightly toned and put together in the trailer. KNIGHT AND DAY is the best trailer this year as it shows the comparisons to the film, showing what made it work. It looked slick, it looked hip, sweet, a good romp what it turned out to be was a dry bogus made turd of a thriller, let alone comedy. The visual flare and cinetography fit like a glove.

Overall a Film that tries too hard to make it Self Seem Plausible and Laughable, Well They do that All Right but Not in The Right Sense the Audience Should Be Laughing. A talented director, wasting his time and great story telling on this Tripe.