Knight And Day (www.the-usher.com)

"Nobody follow us or I kill myself and then her!"

When June Havens (Diaz) boards her flight home to Boston and meets Roy Miller (Cruise), she would have never expected that the ride home would change her life. You see Roy is a CIA agent on the run with a classified piece of technology that will change the world and the plane is filled with other agents trying to take him down. Not wanting June to end up as collateral damage, Roy tries to keep her from harm and stay on mission but as the forces close in June starts to question whether Roy is telling the truth.

As part of the movie calendar, megastar Tom Cruise releases a movie and it becomes a global event but over the last few years he has not quite hit the heights of his previous triumphs. Can ‘Knight and Day’ change that?

There are very few Hollywood stars who are icons around the world but since ‘Top Gun’ was released in 1986, Tom Cruise has become a megastar who can open a movie anywhere on the planet and make a lot of money. Hits commercial and critical hits like ‘The Colour of Money’, ‘Rain Man’, ‘Born on the Fourth of July’, ‘A Few Good Men’, ‘Jerry Maguire’, ‘Minority Report’, ‘The Last Samurai’, ‘War of the Worlds’ and the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise have made the Cruiser one of the most loved stars around the world with thousands of fans turning up to every one of his premieres. Over the last few years however, his private life has gained more headlines than his movies and with his marriage, the over-the-top TV appearances and his religious beliefs gaining more attention, his film career has taken its first fall in decades. With his last movie ‘Valkyrie’ been his first movie, with him as the lead actor, not to take over $100 million in the US in eighteen years, the knives where already out for his next project ‘Knight and Day’ but the good news it that they should stop sharpening them.

After two serious outings, the political drama ‘Lions for Lambs’ and Second World War film ‘Valkyrie’, and a scene-stealing cameo as film executive Les Grossman in ‘Tropic Thunder’, Tom Cruise returns to his bread and butter action persona to bring us a tale of a rouge CIA agent called Roy, tracked by his own agency after he steals a classified piece of technology and kidnaps its inventor. Unfortunately an innocent, beautiful young woman called June gets caught up in the pursuit and does not know who to believe, the CIA agents or a the slightly quirky and off kilter Roy. This, of course, is a spy caper and a thriller that takes us all over the world and is filled with jaw dropping action sequences but it is not as good as it could have been.

There are two big plus points however and that is the presence of Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise himself. Working together again after appearing briefly in ‘Vanilla Sky’, the two have chemistry to burn, playing off each other really well. Diaz is the slightly dizzy blonde who struggles to cope with the extreme circumstances she is thrown into and Cruise mixes comedy with his undoubted skill with action to make June and Roy a very watchable screen couple. It is the supporting cast that suffers however, as the pair has so much screen time the rest of the cast barely get a look in. The always-excellent Peter Sarsgaard and Paul Dano are extremely underused, with their characters serving as nothing more than just a way of moving the plot along to the next action sequence or set piece.

With a story that just serves as an introduction to the next big explosive action sequence, ‘Knight and Day’ is a big budget summer flick that, while very enjoyable in parts, will not set the genre alight. The film is saved by the presence of Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz however, making this a fun action romp but you can’t help thinking that this should be a much better movie because of Cruise’s involvement.

Blu-ray Special Features, including the DVD and Digital Copy (Triple Play)

Featurettes
- Wilder Nights and Crazier Days

Boston Days, Spanish Nights
Knight and “Someday”: Featuring the Black Eyed Peas and Tom Cruise
Knight and Day: Story
Knight and Day: Scope

Viral Videos
- Soccer
- Kick
Live Extras
- What’s New
- Live Lookup
Exclusive: Not Your Regular Spy
Highlight: Excerpt from Wilder Knights and Crazier Days

DVD Special Features

Extended Edition of the film
Featurettes
- Wilder Nights and Crazier Days
- Knight and “Someday”: Featuring the Black Eyed Peas and Tom Cruise
Viral Videos
- Soccer
- Kick

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2010