Knight & Day

Tom Cruise Relaxes and Laughs with “Knight and Day”

Tom Cruise is back.
First he made a hilarious appearance as obnoxious producer Les Grossman, dancing with Jennifer Lopez at the MTV awards.
Now he stars with Cameron Diaz in “Knight and Day,” a live-action cartoon that spoofs Cruise’s identity as unflappable action hero.
Cruise is Ron Miller, an invincible super-secret double CIA agent who collides in the Wichita airport with the life of June Havens (Cameron Diaz), a gearhead girl whose pride and joy is the 1967 GTO that belonged to her daddy.
June restores collector cars for a living. She is in Wichita to buy a couple of carburetors. Her next destination is Boston, where she will be a bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding.
Suddenly June’s reservation is cancelled because the plane is allegedly over-booked. At the last minute the flight is back on again. The plane is nearly empty except for a handful of men including Ron Miller (Cruise), the stranger who had collided with June minutes earlier.
Ron and June flirt, and while she is in the ladies room, Ron springs into action and dispatches everyone on the plane, including the pilot.
No problem, Ron says, I’ll just crash-land in a cornfield and we’ll be on about our way.
“Knight and Day” is homage to great mystery-man, damsel-in-distress movies like “Charade” and “To Catch a Thief.” Director James Mangold (“3:10 to Yuma”) doesn’t expect us to believe the preposterous plot for a moment. For the record it concerns an infinite power source invented by geeky Simon Feck (Paul Dano), who is in Ron’s protection against a parade of bad guys in Boston, New York, the Azores, Spain and Austria.
Cruise, who turns 48 July 3, appears to be having great fun parodying his fearless Ethan Hunt character in “Mission Impossible.” Cameron Diaz is as beautiful as ever, whether cowering in fear or flashing her sexy million-watt smile. If you want to see beautiful people having fun in exotic locations while smashing cars and dodging imaginary bullets, this is your flick.