KNIGHT & DAY

Knight and Day stars Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis and Paul Dano. Directed by James Mangold. Rated PG-13 with a running time of 2 hrs. and 10 mins.

A chance encounter thrusts a woman and a charming but lethal operative into a series of adventures across the globe. As if dodging assassins and uncovering world-changing secrets weren't enough, she must now figure out if he is a good guy, a traitor or just plain crazy.

This movie is Tom Cruise's first full on action movie since Mission Impossible 3 back in 2006. I have to say he did a great job. Cruise just looks comfortable playing an action hero and he is very convincing. He also does most of his own stunts which is pretty impressive. There were plenty of outlandish action sequences but they were all very fun and entertaining. I loved the action part of the movie but when it tried to be funny and romantic I think thats when it failed.

Cameron Diaz plays the woman caught up in the action with Cruise's Roy Miller who is a spy possibly gone rogue. I have to say that I often found Diaz annoying in the movie. Throughout the action she is basically screaming and running around like an idiot. I know that it is supposed to be funny but its not and it grew very tiring. Then in the final act Diaz's character is all of a sudden a world class driver and knows how to use a gun effectively. I wish that would have been explained but oh well. I just thought that the parts that were supposed to be funny and romantic were the very weak parts of the movie.

This is Tom Cruise's movie and it just reminds you of why he is one of the worlds biggest actors. He is very like-able and a great actor. Anytime Cruise was onscreen strutting his action skills the movie was great. Any other parts though the movie was not. I know Cameron Diaz was supposed to be the comic relief of some sort but it just didn't work for me. Because of Cruise this is a fair movie.

B-