Tom Cruise has become sort of an action hero-esque icon in the last decade. He was in the sci-fi thriller Minority Report, Mission Impossible 1-3 (soon to be a fourth) and a few other things that have established him as entertaining when he’s touting a gun. So it’s truly not a shocker that 20th Century Fox hired him on to play lead rogue agent Roy Miller.
If you’re not familiar with the story, Knight and Day revolves around a rogue agent named Roy Miller (Tom Cruise), who gets an innocent bystander named June Havens (Cameron Diaz) mistakenly involved in a deal to deliver an endless battery to an arms dealer in Spain. Of course, Havens involvement makes the deal less than smooth and she brings more trouble to the table than Miller expected. Before the end of the day (no pun intended) Miller turns out to be way more help than harm.
I don’t know about this movie, folks. The preview looked interesting, but the comedic element that is Cameron Diaz just doesn’t fit. I love her as an actor, but this character was poorly written for her. The character, who does bring moments of ‘funny’ on occasion, single-handedly disrupts the flow of the film. Again, it’s not Diaz’s fault. If you took out Havens from the script completely then you’re left with a badass spy flick that has room for more explanation and plot points. By leaving Havens in the script the director/actors/audience were forced fed a story that is so compact that you can’t recognize what it’s truly about by the time the movie ends. For example, the main story revolves around this awesome battery that is suppose to last forever and that can power a small city (it’s the size of a C battery). We get introduced to this device at the beginning of the film, the creator of the device by the middle of the film, but the story of both never truly gets explained fully. Paul Dano plays Simon Feck, the battery inventor, and his talents are completely wasted. Dano, if you’re not familiar, played the manipulative preacher in There Will Be Blood, so I know this guy can act. Anyway, so the film doesn’t really spend enough time explaining the reasons for Miller’s ‘on the run’ movements, instead it chooses to focus more on Havens and her development into his helper.
I fully understand why you would want to use your big name actors to their fullest capacity, but you (Hollywood) should never sacrifice a healthy story for such a thing. Some of the greatest movies of our lifetime aren’t successful because of acting; they’re successful because people want to revisit the stories. Knight and Day isn’t one of the movies you will want to revisit after watching it one time. It’s incredibly imbalanced in regards to plot points and rollercoaster rides for the audience. There’s too much time spent explaining and developing a useless character like Havens and not enough time spent on developing Miller’s story. Because of these things the movie simply doesn’t work very well.
A final thing about the film, which I simply don’t understand, I have no idea what Knight and Day means. The Knight part I get, but what the heck does Day mean? Guess I will never know.
Let’s shift gears a bit and talk about the Blu-ray portion of this review.
The best thing this Blu-ray has going for it is the locations the film was shot in. You get some gorgeous shots of Boston, a nice segment of a tiny island (in the pacific?) with beautiful blue water, some shots of what could be Spain and some shots in what could be Austria. All of these locations are beautifully represented in 1080p. The film was transferred nearly flawlessly to HD and that’s a big plus when you’re looking for something fun to watch. Fox has really turned it on when it comes to Blu-ray transfer (see Alien Anthology for details) and it shows with Knight and Day. It’s potentially the second best thing this film has going for it.
What’s the best, you ask?
The audio really soars in this Blu-ray release. Coming in DTS-HD 5.1, you get some sweet audio with the fun action in the film. I’ve always thought that audio is so vital when it comes to Blu-ray and action films and this is no different. 20th Century Fox took some solid care with the audio remastering and it paid off.
Finally, here’s what you get with special features portion of this release:
Disc 1:
• BD Disc with Theatrical Version
• Wilder Knights and Crazier Days
• Boston Days and Spanish Knights
• Knight and “Someday”: Featuring the Black Eyed Peas and Tom Cruise
• Viral Video: Soccer
• Viral Video: Kick
• Knight and Day: Story
• Knight and Day: Scope
• Theatrical Trailer
• BD-Live Extras
▪ What’s New
▪ Live LookUp
▪ Exclusive: Not Your Regular Spy
▪ Highlight: Excerpt from Wilder Knights and Crazier Days
Disc 2:
• DVD with Theatrical Version
• Wilder Knights and Crazier Days
• Knight and “Someday”: Featuring the Black Eyed Peas and Tom Cruise
• Viral Video: Soccer
• Viral Video: Kick
• Theatrical Trailer
Disc 3:
• Digital Copy
While I certainly could have done without the cheesy viral videos, I think you get some solid features with this release. You get some good info about the film and the intentions, also some nice little extras. I really would have liked to have commentary from director/actors, but what can you do? Solid all the way around.