Review: Knight and Day

All the ingredients for a slick espionage thriller are accounted for here: attractive actors; exotic far-flung locales and spectacular action set pieces. A James Bond-style escapist confection, Knight and Day is ideal for a crunchy popcorn matinee.

Knight and Day
Cast: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz
Direction: James Mangold
Rating: ***

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All the ingredients for a slick espionage thriller are accounted for here: attractive actors; exotic far-flung locales and spectacular action set pieces. A James Bond-style escapist confection, Knight and Day is ideal for a crunchy popcorn matinee. The opening sequence is a corker. A man and a woman bump into each other at an airport terminal, twice. Aboard the plane they flirt. But when the gal (Diaz) returns from the bathroom she discovers that all the other passengers, crew and even both the pilots have been killed by her mysterious companion (Cruise). From this point on, the plot tends to get as puzzling as a jigsaw puzzle with some missing pieces. The man is a super-spy who drags the unsuspecting woman into his world of cloak-and-dagger stuff. The dashing duo must now match wits with a duplicitous CIA agent as well as an international arms dealer.

Constantly bullets fly, cars turn turtle and bodies are punched into pulp. At times, the body count resembles a war field. Romantic sparks fly too when the couple shares some intimate moments on a deserted island. Now in his late-40s, Tom Cruise is still astonishingly agile. He also shares a wonderful on screen chemistry with Cameron Diaz. Recommended for the thrill-seekers.