MOVIE REVIEW: KNIGHT AND DAY

KNIGHT AND DAY

Three of Seven Cows

I was looking forward to Knight and Day, not so much because I expected it to be good but because everything else released recently has been so bad. On occasion Tom Cruise has been known to appear in a big-budget cheese ball, but at the very least they’ve been competent cheese balls. More often, his movies are actually good. The best that can be said for Knight and Day, on the other hand, is that it has delusions of mediocrity.

             

Tom Cruise plays a rogue CIA agent and Cameron Diaz plays his unwilling accomplice/love interest. He’s hyper-competent, and she’s a big chicken. Hilarity ensues. But of course it doesn’t, mostly because the script is rather inane, but also because for the first time that I know of Tom Cruise seems to be going through the motions. His magic has always been that even while his face has become iconic, he could still make you believe in a character. Not here.

             

Diaz, on the other hand, seems to be giving this one her all, knowing that playing opposite Cruise is an opportunity to climb one of the few remaining rungs on her career ladder. I’ve always been ambivalent about Cameron Diaz, liking her well enough but not really considering her an actor so much as a personality. Knight and Day hasn’t changed my opinion there, but I do like her a bit more.

            

 Now, a word or two about body waxing. When did this happen? When did men stop being hairy? Is this going to be expected of me? Will a hairy chest or back be greeted with the same half-hidden snickers that are now reserved for women with hairy pits? When I’m at the beach with a date (it could happen) and I begin to take my shirt off, will I get the same subtle, pleading shake of the head that I typically get now when I start a conversation with “Let me tell you what I think about…”? Must I now conform to some ridiculous, unrealistic and unhealthy standard of beauty set by a society that only wants to objectify me and make me feel inadequate? If women knew what this felt like it wouldn’t be allowed to happen. I’m just saying...

             

Knight and Day is harmless enough, with little for anyone to object to. I don’t recall much language or any nudity, but then I was dozing a bit and could possibly have missed some. And that pretty much says it all: This is an action-comedy and I was dozing. That’s never good. I give Knight and Day three sleepy, thoroughly underwhelmed cows.