CheekyChicago

As are most Tom Cruise movies, Knight and Day is action packed and literally explosive. When put together with Cameron Diaz’s bubbly personality and the beautiful European settings, this movie is worth the $10 movie stub – but just barely.

The first main opening scene shows Tom Cruise’s character, Roy Miller, a CIA agent gone rogue, on an airplane with a dozen assassins and June Havens, played by Cameron Diaz. Havens is innocent, ending up on the plane because of a wrong-place-wrong-time situation. She immediately gets wrapped up in Miller’s elaborate plan to save the inventor of the Zephyr, an everlasting battery wanted by both the CIA and a Spanish mob.

Along the way, Havens is trying to make it to her sister’s wedding on time, Miller shows off his Caribbean hiding place and there is quite the fight scene on a train in Austria. The European scenery in both Austria and Spain is beautiful, Cruise and Diaz are great together and the humor is constantly witty. And, without fail, both sexy stars end up bikini- and boxer-clad at one point in the film. Cruise even has to take off his shirt in one scene to dress a knife wound. How convenient.

But as for the plot, well, there isn’t much of a plot in this mess of busyness and crazy events. Miller needs to save Simon Beck, the inventor, and convince the CIA that he is not the one who has gone rogue. All of these mediocre speed bumps are eventually taken care of, but there are many other factors to the story that never are. Miller’s family is poorly mixed in with the story line and rushed into one scene and Havens’ personal life is limited to a weak scene with ex-boyfriend Rodney. The audience is left with flat characters.

Now, most bad guys in action comedy films get their point across: they’re vicious and they’re here to ruin the lives of the main characters. In Knight and Day, I barely felt any threat for Miller or Havens, even when an assassin was coming at both of them with a butcher knife. Cruise is perfect to play the invincible hero and Diaz obviously picks up gun skills faster than any real life girl could; but come on, give the bad guys some room to be bad.

The major aspects that the film has going for it are the action and fighting, but even those scenes are rushed and not as exciting as the previews make you think. Miller sedates Havens numerous times during the exciting scenes to calm her nerves, leading to fast forwarding through the action and a convenient cop-out for the stuntmen. The film’s saving grace is a thrilling bull fighting and motorcycle car chase through the gorgeous streets of Seville, Spain. Even then, though, the special effects are lacking.

The film was fun to watch as a whole, both Diaz and Cruise are extremely appealing, but I don’t quite believe the plot, the characters or the romance. So if you’re looking for an action comedy that you’ll enjoy while in the theater, yet leave confused as to why you enjoyed yourself, this is definitely the film for you.