Knight & Day Movie Preview

Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise may not be thought of as the most natural of on-screen double acts following their teaming up for disappointing psychological thriller Vanilla Sky, but this comic spy caper could prove the doubters wrong. Sitting somewhere between the light-hearted bickering during gunfights of Mr & Mrs Smith and the scale of Mission: Impossible franchise lies this attempt to liven up the summer.

For Knight & Day, Cruise takes a break from the serious undercover business of being Ethan Hunt in favour of a more light-hearted role as Milner, an armed and dangerous man who runs into June Evans (Diaz) in an airport. When he later kills everyone on board their flight while she takes a bathroom break, she’s all talk of what she see witnessed on return to solid ground. It’s not until Milner appears again that she releases the full repercussions, however, as the odd-couple go on the run for a wild ride featuring gun-fights and car chases with plenty of glossy explosions.

Tom Cruise is in need of a hit. Neither his turn as a controversial Senator in Lions and Lambs nor his performance as a German who attempted to kill Hitler in Valkyrie were the Oscar-nominated roles he might have hoped for. Both lacked the emotional pull needed and fell flat. Prior to that Mission: Impossible III and War of the Worlds made it big at the box office though his dominant force at the centre of each hindered rather than helped their cause. Taking himself less seriously as a fat, rude Hollywood studio boss in Tropic Thunder brought some positive feedback so for Milner he seems to be following that trend. The cavalier spy is charmingly reckless with his attitude to dealing with the bad guys and Cruise plays up to the fun factor director James Mangold seems to have been keen to keep high. Diaz, meanwhile, has avoided the action genre since the dire Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle with the Shrek films her most memorable offerings since. Knight & Day looks set to provide both their careers with an extra dash of mainstream appeal.

From the looks of the trailer, Diaz has managed to click with Cruise to inject the always-necessary chemistry between the two leads and the action looks to come hard and fast with plenty of outrageous stunts firmly aimed at the summer blockbuster crowd. Knight & Day should be an entertaining romp with a nod and a wink at itself.

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