Why do we put up with the same useless garbage year after year? Ever since the release of Jaws in 1975 the studios have been obsessed with producing “summer blockbusters”. Casting big name actors, using generic concepts and expensive computer generated effects instead of focusing on low cost, yet effective techniques like better storytelling and believability. Well, Knight and Day is the newest gift from Hollywood in the vile attempt to take our money and destroy two hours of our life.
The clichés go way beyond the title of this tortuous film. A plot that is the amalgamation of plenty of other attempts at the “summer box office smash,” Miller, played by Tom Cruise (Valkyrie) is a rogue agent that is on the run from his agency. He is forced into protecting the life of a car restorer, June Havens, played by Cameron Diaz (The Box). Miller has gone rogue to protect the life of a scientist and his new discovered technology, a battery. Defying every known law of physics, he has created a perpetual, self-sustaining battery. A wrench is thrown in the works when the agency he is fleeing puts June in his way to see how he’ll react.
After being in the industry since `81, you’d believe that Cruise would have one of the strongest teams combing the vast amount of scripts created in the entire industry. Instead handlers found the most lazy, underwritten non-fleshed out script they could find, it had PG-13 written all over it. If that doesn’t make sense to you, think harder.
Any flaws made during the production of this nightmare were desperately attempted to be washed over with the money hose in post-production. Action sequences that were attempts to look as though Cruise had done his own stunts were sadly not at all believable. Even the dialogue scenes in moving vehicles has stepped back fifteen years. Thought Hollywood had gotten this technique down? Apparently not. In every phase of production this film falls on its face.
If you do end up spending the money to see this movie you will be left wondering what happened to the Hollywood machine. Movie studios will finance films that bear more than the gross domestic product than that of some third world cultures. Also, they’ve been making films longer than almost every human being on this planet, if filmmaking was truly the craft it once was you’d think they’d have perfected it by now. Knight and Day is proof that many in Hollywood do not care one lick about art and entertainment, just the possibility on a good return. Do yourself and many future generations a favor and don’t give them the satisfaction.
Rated PG-13 for sequences of action violence throughout, and brief strong language.
