A Lackluster Film With Two A-List Stars

Is it just me, or have the recent films released these past several months been overly corny? I went to the movies with a friend the other night and we were deciding between Killers with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl or Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. We ended up picking Knight and Day, and let's just say that the title was just as cheesy as Knight (Cruise) trying to be an overly-suave "knight in shining armor" for Day (Diaz). The movie as a whole was simply overdone. The action scenes were pretty good, so if some of the corny dialog would have been simply cut out, it would have been a better movie.

Let me try to describe how trite some of the scenes with Cruise and Diaz were. First of all, only ten minutes into the movie Day is already falling for Knight and sharing personal information in hushed whispers in one of the most awkward public places to try to have an intimate conversation with someone--an airplane. Secondly, after about twenty minutes into the movie, in what was probably the most cliche moment of the entire movie, Day walks up to Knight and kisses him...in the middle of the aisle on the airplane after speaking to him for only a few short minutes. The movie was ruined for me before it was even halfway through.

Another stupidly comical part was at the end of the movie when Day let herself be captured by "the bad guy" in hopes that Knight would try to rescue her. The criminal who supposedly has no problem killing people doesn't try to rough Day up in order to get information out of her. Instead, he injects her with truth serum which essentially leaves Day in a giggly, valley-girl state in which she confesses her love for Knight. Diaz shouldn't have taken this role, even if she was acting aside ultra-famous Cruise. Her character was annoying on so many levels. She followed around Knight like a lost, needy puppy dog. It was not a flattering role for her. Even though she played a sometimes-ditzy blonde in Charlie's Angles, at least she could handle her own and was more of a kick-ass character. She actually had a personality in that film, whereas in Knight and Day it seems like she's just along for the ride. You can hardly call her a sidekick.

I was excited to see Knight and Day because I figured it would be good with two A-list actors, but I was definitely wrong. Even throwing two great actors into the leading roles in this movie did nothing to improve the horrendous dialogue. In addition, although the action scenes weren't too bad, even they were watered down by the way the film was produced. The producers were somehow able to lackluster the seriousness of the action scenes, making them seem kiddish and extinguishing a sense of urgency necessary for an successful action film. I can only hope that the next movie I see won't leave me as disappointed.

My Film Rating: 1.5/5 stars