Knight and Day

Having previously worked together in "Vanilla Sky", Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz have teamed up again and make one hell of a pair too in the action comedy "Knight and Day".

June Havens (Diaz) is in the wrong place at the wrong time: after purchasing an important item for her sister's wedding gift, the young woman just wants to get on the next plane home. At the airport, she bumps into handsome Roy Miller (Cruise) twice, who is then also on the same plane, causing June's hormones to boil vigorously. But any spark of romance is lost when Roy, a covert operative, takes out all the other passengers - except June, of course - and the plane crash lands in a field. From now on, the young woman's life is pure adventure and a fight to the death. Because the villains who are after Roy are now also after June's life. Or is she on the wrong side after all?

With films like "Cop Land", "Walk the Line", "Death Train to Yuma" and "Identity", director James Mangold has proven his versatility time and again. And now, with "Knight and Day", he has proven that he can also direct solid action-comedies. Sure, logic and pretension take a time-out here, and the action isn't really original either. But the actors are having so much obvious fun and act with pleasure through Mangold's whimsical production that these weaknesses should not be judged as such. Because in the end, it's clear that the primary goal of "Knight and Day" is to provide viewers with good laughs and neatly staged action in picturesque locations. And the film more than fulfills that mission from the first second to the last.

The film's success is also due in large part to Tom Cruise's performance. You may think what you want of Cruise personally. But as an actor in roles like this, the man is simply perfect. With a lot of charm and muscle, Cruise proves why he still belongs in the upper echelon of Hollywood. Even scenes that are so over the top that you can only shake your head in disbelief, he masters so casually and in a certain way also believable that it's just too much fun to watch him do it that you don't even become aware of the senselessness of what's going on.

As fast-paced as the action scenes are, the locations of the story change as quickly. The transitions between these changes of location are as cleverly as they are amusingly resolved, and make for some really good laughs, especially in a scene that shows Cruise going from hanging upside down to fleeing in an airplane to diving for fish on a gorgeous island in paradisiacal nowhere.

A prize for originality won't be won by "Kinght and Day" any more than it will win the prize for best special effects, which are simply too often to be spotted as just that. And yet, the film is one of the big winners of what has been a rather tepid summer of cinema so far. If you like to switch off in the cinema and enjoy great popcorn action, you should definitely not miss this fun. Therefore: for friends of lighter entertainment absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp