Knight and Day

And finally, a rarity these days: a summer blockbuster that’s not a sequel, adaptation or remake. This is Knight and Day, and with Tom Cruise in the lead, it makes for a genuinely good time killer.

Here, Tom is Roy, a secret agent who bumps into June (Cameron Diaz) at the Witchita Airport. June is on her way to Boston for her sister’s wedding, and she and Roy become seatmates. They strike up a few talks and hit it off quickly.

Then, when she’s not looking, everybody else on the plane, even the pilots, tries to kill Roy. Roy kills them back which bring their plane down in a cornfield.

It turns out Roy is out to deliver the world’s most powerful battery out of the hands of bad guys. The bad guys target June for associating with him, which results in them going on the run.

The best part of the movie is the two stars themselves. They go well together and separately in their comedic roles. It’s especially true with Tom Cruise, who as Roy is the perfect straight man. It makes the delivery of his lines, especially his poorly-worded fake hostage taking just funny.

In fact, these two more than make up for some weak spots in this script. At one point, we allegedly learn of Roy’s true colors, but that barely comes up again. And some of the supporting characters, except for Viola Davis as Roy’s boss and Paul Dano as Roy’s genius friend are poorly defined. And even the title itself is only half-defined.

I’m not gonna spoil the movie. You’re going to have to watch it yourself. In addition to the leads, the film’s climactic car chase during Spain’s Running of the Bulls makes it worth the while.