2010. Dir: James Mangold. Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Jordi Mollà and Viola Davis. ●●○○○
Oh, Tom. I wanted this to be good - I really wanted to enjoy this throwback to cheesy thrillers of the 60s. I as hoping to be able to jump on the couch with unbridled joy at your fun loving performance. Instead I can't help thinking what a wasted opportunity it was and how Knight and Day tried far too hard and ended up being loved by no-one.
The plot, such as it is, involves hapless classic car restorer Cameron Diaz (I know) getting caught up in rogue CIA operative Tom Cruise's plan to evade the spook community and transplant a convenient MacGuffin to nerdy scientist Paul Dano. (On a side issue does anyone remember when scientists stopped being older guys that are easily distracted and became younger guys who are perpetually nervy?) We then follow our mismatched duo from plane set piece to train set piece from New York to the Azores to the Alps. As I sit and type this I can't even remember all the locations or why...
Therein lies the problem. Hitchcock used to be able to take a flimsy excuse to set an Cary Grant sized everyman on a trip across the globe and it would all be so much fun that the reasons didn't matter. Did anyone really care why Cary was heading North by Northwest? Of course not, we just fell in love with the character and wanted to follow him all the way.
Neither of our leads here can even come close to matching Cary Grant (a tall order, I admit). Cameron comes off better, her natural comic timing aiding vastly with the continuous barrage of silly action scenes. Indeed her expressions when leaning over the back set and trying to drive a car or facing off against a hit man are the only moments of the film that made me stifle a giggle. Cruise comes off a lot worse, the fact that the character always appears to be in control is not endearing at all (and don't get me started on his habit of drugging Diaz) and whilst his overplaying of the off-the-wall elements come close to banishing the sofa-leaping Cruise from our sub-conscious the tongue in cheek feel of the part seems too calculated for that to really work.
If the leads are underwritten then the supporting characters really have problems with the two main baddies being particularly nonthreatening - at no point do you imagine anything other than a happy ending for out lead pair. Not that either of them really try. Spoiler alert Peter Sarsgaard barely can be bothered to phone his performance in - it's closer to having been e-mailed.
Apart from the initial battle on the plane none of the action sequences are even remotely heavy enough to work and it marks a major step back from James Mangold's last picture 3.10 to Yuma. The final five minutes of the film, set in Poploma during the bull run, are preposterous in terms of the carnage shown and offensively illogical when it comes to dispatching of Sarsgaard. All this without any ironic quips which would at least confirm the whole things meant to be a comedy.
It's not the worst film of the year, nor is it the most irritating, but it is a major mistake in just about everyone's CVs and will deservedly be found in supermarket bargain bins before long.
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Knight and Day
Saturday, 7 August 2010
A public display of grief (Out this week 06/08/10)
Tricky week to assess (and not just because I've been away from the computer for five days). I would imagine that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz will be able to score the box office lead, but both the dance obsessed teenagers and the talking animal loving tweenies have their own counter-programming. It doesn't matter because film of the week is the limited release of Undertow.
Aisha
Quite nice looking bollywood adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, with the social structures of medern Delhi backing the matchmaking antics of the titular heroine. As ever the lack of mainstream press support hinders my anticipation for the Bollywood product.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Cats and Dogs; The revenge of Kitty Galore
Sequel to the 2002 kids film where cats and dogs talk and are at continuous war. Why has it taken so long for the sequel to be made? Because it looks dreadful and no-one should go near it. Nick Nolte, Bette Midler and Michael Clarke Duncan are amongst those who should be ashamed.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky
I doubt you need me to tell you this but it's a biopic about the relationship between the classic fashion designer and the avant garde composer. Less starry than last years straightfoward Coco Chanel picture but should make a nice counterpoint
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Eccentrities of a Blonde Haired girl
101 year old Portuguese director shows no sign of stopping with his latst highly regarded parable based on the 19th century short story by Eca de Queiros about a love story recounted to a fellow train passenger.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Knight and Day
Tom Cruise's latest bid to resurrect his action credentials has only managed middling reviews and looks eminently missable. That said I'm probably going to watch it tonight.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Step Up 3D
There's dancing. There's an unlikely relationship between a boy and girl from opposite sides of the tracks/different dance crews. It's in 3D. Is there anything else to say other than "Ugh" (see comments).
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Undertow
A bisexual love triangle drives the plot forward in this latest magical-realist movie from Latin America. Moving look at the nature of love and the idea of letting go as Christian Mercado must come out to his homophobic fishing community in order to allow his deceased lover to rest in peace.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Wildest Dream: The Conquest of Everest
Part documentary on Conrad Anker and Leo Houlding's attempt to solve the riddle of Mallory's disappearance and part biopic on the extraordinary attempt by George Mallory to reach the summit of Everest. Totally stunning cinematography with Lima Neeson and Ralph Fiennes among the voice cast.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Tuesday Trailers - Knight and Day
I bet you thought Tuesday Trailers was gone for good. Luckily what August lacks in depth of movies it makes up in breadth so there's a fair smattering of trailers to keep us going through July. First up is James Mangold's latest action adventure starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. You'll note I started pluging this on Tom's birthday, although it made it into the top 20 most anticipated films so it's hardly new to the radar. From the trailer I'm getting a Romancing the Stone vibe, with plenty of cheese, should be fun whilst it lasts. What do you think?
Knight and Day opens on 06 August 2010.
Saturday, 3 July 2010
Tom Cruise
Happy Birthday to
Tom Cruise
48 today
Born of the third of July doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Is Cruise bashing still in vogue, I thought his self-mocking performances in Knight and Day (which I am looking forward to) and as Les Grossman would've begun to dilute that although looking at the posts on various websites you'd think he regularly ate babies. I suppose you have the same arguement with Cruise as we had with Sean Hayes a few weeks, ago when the performance is good enough you can forget Hayes is gay and that Cruise is a bit weird, and with Cruise the vast majority of his performances make me forget so I guess I'm a fan.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
20 for 2010 - Knight and Day
It's true, I've been holding back on writing up number 9 on the countdown all evening, but here is it Knight & Day.
I am, after all, expecting some stick for this one. The title is awful, the trailer looks confused and neither Tom nor Cameron are the draws they used to be... But dammit this could be so much fun. The sort of fun we've forgotten about when we go to the movies.
Over the last few years fun has disappeared from the action movie template. We have darker than black Batman films, depressed teen vampires, moody Bonds and parables about the decline of our natural world. Even the last Die Hard movie was po-faced.
The trailer for this does show that Cruise is having a good time, being a bit bonkers, almost playing to the character type we've defined him in his personal life. I think this will be utterly barmy, leave your brain at the door action.
Director James Mangold has shown us he can manage effective action scenes in the past (Cop Land, 3:10 to Yuma) so we know that that side will be competent. Lets just relax about the way this film is being marketed and get ready for 2 hours of rollercoaster fun.
