Knight and Day
Director: James Mangold
Starring: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz

In recent years, it would appear that a Tom Cruise film can not be reviewed without criticizing his personal life. Cruise has had several missteps with the PR machine. Thankfully,  he still knows how to make an entertaining movie 30 years into his career. After all, this is the man who gave us Top Gun, A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, and War of the Worlds. This list could go on and on, so let's cut Mr. Cruise some slack.

For Cameron Diaz, Knight and Day is a great improvement on her last few efforts. The Box, My Sister's Keeper, and What Happens in Vegas were all critical and box office disappointments. I found myself reminded why I loved her in My Best Friend's Wedding and Charlie's Angels. An action-comedy finds Diaz right were she belongs.

Knight and Day is exactly what this summer movie season needs and has been painfully lacking: fun. The plot is admittedly a little thin. A spy has to keep a special gadget safe from the bad guys while protecting the girl he unwittingly involves. Cruise and Diaz make a great on screen duo, and the laughs start early in this action-comedy. The opening sequence finds Cruise's character killing a plane full of assassins and then explaining to Diaz why they are the only two people alive on board. This sets the tone for the rest of this light-hearted adventure.

I found myself laughing out loud as Cruise tells Diaz how her chances of survival or better "with" him than "without" him. Cruise handles comedy quite well and apart from Tropic Thunder and Jerry Maguire we have not seen much of his comedic side.

The story moves rapidly with as many locations as you would find in a Bond adventure. The motorcycle chase in the midst of a bull run is a particular high point. So forget about the acrobatics on Oprah's couch, and sit back and enjoy Tom Cruise in top form.


Maybe, just maybe, Tom Cruise the private citizen and Tom Cruise the movie star are as different, and I am going to say it, as night and day.

*fashionadofilm score 7 out of 10

fashionadofilm by Jamie Clemons