Today I went to see the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz big summer action film Knight And Day. I went in knowing the film had received very mixed reviews, had extremely poor box office and that every columnist in America jumped on the bash Tom Cruise band wagon. So I was very curious to see how good or bad the movie was.
Turns out it's not that bad, it's not great, but as summer popcorn pictures go it was a lot of fun. The reason to see this film is Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. They deliver the star performances expected of them.
First of all the film is a comedy, not an action adventure film. And both stars play it straight but with a sense of irony. They know they are in on the joke and they know you are too. In that vein it is very much like Charade or Romancing The Stone. The plot is secondary compared to the inter-action of the two stars. Once again director James Mangold (Walk The Line, 3:10 To Yuma) shows his strength in bringing out the best of both stars. There is much wrong with the film, but I definitely enjoyed spending time with Cruise and Diaz.
Now here is where the film goes wrong:
A.)The script does not let us spend enough time with these two charmers be for we rush off to the next chase. You can tell the script was written by committee.
B.)The action set pieces are inventive but rely so much on obvious CGI that you never feel any sense of danger. The problem with CGI is that it allows writers to concoct ridiculous stunts that can be created in a computer, but never feel real.
C.) The film's marketing was terrible. Look at the poster. What marketing genius decided not to feature Cruise and Diaz on the poster? I also think that Fox did not know who this movies target audience was. Instead of selling it as a smart comedy that plays like a big summer action pic, while mocking them at the same time, that would appeal to an adult audience, the movie was sold as a big budget action pic for the under 25 crowd.
This movie didn't fail because Tom Cruise was in it, this movie failed because Fox didn't know how to sell it and they picked the wrong weekend to release it. Early June or late July would have been much better.
The time when stars were paid $20 million to star in a summer blockbuster are over. Stars don't sell movies anymore, concepts do. But everyone who wrote Tom Cruise off when this movie opened will be surprised when he comes back with another successful film. Like every project, he gives this film his all and it's one of the better performances this summer.
At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars.
5 comments:
NOTE: I am the grouchy anonymous
I do not think the reviews were very mixed on this movie, in fact it was pretty much universally panned. My guess is that this movie porobably stunk...but, it seems that once again you let the fact that you let the simple experience of going to a movie (which you state in your intro that you always enjoy) get in the way of your rating. It appears that every single movie you see gets at least a 2.5 rating just because it is in a theater. It doesn't matter how bad it is because to you the movie going experience is fun no matter what is playing.
My suggestion is that you try and take the movie theater out of the movie. Just tell us how the movie is, we don;t want to know if you had fun because oyu got to go to a theater. It would be refreshing if you bashed a movie for once. They played these clowns millions to star in a movie that is stupid, cliched etc...Tell me, how many car chases were there, how many explosions, how many slow motion flips and bullet dodging, how many quick wisecracks...This movie has been done a thousand times at half the price and it will always stink.
I am giving this movie 1 star and I did not even see it!!
What a jerk that guy is, I bet this movie is great. Thanks for motivating me to see it!
"I always enjoy the experience of watching them"
That is a quote from your heading...hence why every movie gets at least two stars
If a movie stinks, I do not enjoy watching them, hence why I can spot and identify a stinker
Dear Anonymous (the grouch anonymous, not the other guy)
Here are what some major film critics said about Knight And Day
Richard Corliss of Time magazine gave Tom Cruise a glowing review.
Roger Ebert gave the film three stars.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said "If you doubt Cruise's skills in the star department, "'Knight and Day' should make you a believer. It's hardly a perfect film, not even close, but it is the most entertaining made-for-adults studio movie of the summer, and one of the reasons it works at all is the great skill and commitment Cruise brings to the starring role." Turan also said "'Knight and Day' is also fortunate to have James Mangold in charge. As he demonstrated in 'Walk the Line' and '3:10 to Yuma,' Mangold is one of the few current directors who has an instinct for reasonably intelligent popular entertainment. His films don't end up on 10-best lists, but you walk out of them feeling you've gotten what you paid for, and that is an increasingly rare commodity."
Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net gave the film a rating of 8 out of 10, and concluded, "The entertainment comes from how much fun it is watching [Cruise and Diaz] on screen together and that's what separates Knight and Day from previous attempts at mixing romance, comedy, and action."
In a review for the Orlando Sentinel, critic Roger Moore commented, "The blase plot devices (a gadget, the nerdy guy who invented it), the bland villains, the too-fast dash through exotic locales, don't matter so long as Cruise and Diaz click and spark their scenes -- chases and embraces -- to life. And Cruise, hurling himself at this as if his Mission: Impossible future and indeed his whole career depended on it, makes sure they do.
Robert Bell of Exclaim! wrote of the script, "Sure, things slow down a bit around the midway point, making it clear that there is very little going on here aside from cheesy escapist fantasy, but things quickly pick up again, engaging us in the moment of a movie that knows exactly what mainstream trash cinema should be."
So as I said the reviews were mixed. So many reviewers jumped on the bash Tom Cruise band wagon and gave more information about the film's box office than they did the film itself. This has happened before with other films from high profile stars. And many, like you, probably judged the movie before they even bought their ticket.
My review is based on whether I enjoyed the movie itself. I laughed out loud frequently. I was caught up in what crazy way they would get out of each ridiculous situation and the minute I realized the film is a wry look at all the serious films like Mission:Impossible I was able to see it for what it was. The mistake the filmmaker made was not letting it be even funnier.
As a person who is very knowledgable about film I don't go to see movies that stink. Hence I avoided Marmaduke, Sex In The City 2, The Killers, Jonah Hex etc., Why should I pay money to go see a movie I know is bad just so I can write about it being bad.
This blog is about enjoying the movie experienceing, not sitting through crap so I can write a bad review. Let the critics who get paid do that. I'll go see films I like and write about them and you can automaticaly subtract 2 stars cause you are a grouch!.
Dear Anonymous (the grouch anonymous, not the other guy)
Here are what some major film critics said about Knight And Day
Richard Corliss of Time magazine gave Tom Cruise a glowing review.
Roger Ebert gave the film three stars.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said "If you doubt Cruise's skills in the star department, "'Knight and Day' should make you a believer. It's hardly a perfect film, not even close, but it is the most entertaining made-for-adults studio movie of the summer, and one of the reasons it works at all is the great skill and commitment Cruise brings to the starring role." Turan also said "'Knight and Day' is also fortunate to have James Mangold in charge. As he demonstrated in 'Walk the Line' and '3:10 to Yuma,' Mangold is one of the few current directors who has an instinct for reasonably intelligent popular entertainment. His films don't end up on 10-best lists, but you walk out of them feeling you've gotten what you paid for, and that is an increasingly rare commodity."
Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net gave the film a rating of 8 out of 10, and concluded, "The entertainment comes from how much fun it is watching [Cruise and Diaz] on screen together and that's what separates Knight and Day from previous attempts at mixing romance, comedy, and action."
In a review for the Orlando Sentinel, critic Roger Moore commented, "The blase plot devices (a gadget, the nerdy guy who invented it), the bland villains, the too-fast dash through exotic locales, don't matter so long as Cruise and Diaz click and spark their scenes -- chases and embraces -- to life. And Cruise, hurling himself at this as if his Mission: Impossible future and indeed his whole career depended on it, makes sure they do.
Robert Bell of Exclaim! wrote of the script, "Sure, things slow down a bit around the midway point, making it clear that there is very little going on here aside from cheesy escapist fantasy, but things quickly pick up again, engaging us in the moment of a movie that knows exactly what mainstream trash cinema should be."
So as I said the reviews were mixed. So many reviewers jumped on the bash Tom Cruise band wagon and gave more information about the film's box office than they did the film itself. This has happened before with other films from high profile stars. And many, like you, probably judged the movie before they even bought their ticket.
My review is based on whether I enjoyed the movie itself. I laughed out loud frequently. I was caught up in what crazy way they would get out of each ridiculous situation and the minute I realized the film is a wry look at all the serious films like Mission:Impossible I was able to see it for what it was. The mistake the filmmaker made was not letting it be even funnier.
As a person who is very knowledgable about film I don't go to see movies that stink. Hence I avoided Marmaduke, Sex In The City 2, The Killers, Jonah Hex etc., Why should I pay money to go see a movie I know is bad just so I can write about it being bad.
This blog is about enjoying the movie experienceing, not sitting through crap so I can write a bad review. Let the critics who get paid do that. I'll go see films I like and write about them and you can automaticaly subtract 2 stars cause you are a grouch!.
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