Knight and Day

This is going to hurt.

You see, personally, I haven't been a Tom Cruise fan for quite a while. And it has nothing to do with Oprah's couch, either.

That being said, I must admit that Knight and Day is an enjoyable, fast-paced action film, and the chemistry between Tom Cruise and the always-endearing Cameron Diaz is undeniable.

Cruise's character is a CIA agent suspected of having gone rogue, who accidentally gets Diaz's June Haven involved in an intercontinental, multi-antagonist escapade. The CIA is hot on their trail; and what would a good thriller be without international arms dealers?

Roy Miller (Cruise) comes off as quirky, confident, charming and, above all, a gentleman. His fast-paced banter is full of wit, charm, and positive-reinforcement (for instance, after a car chase, loading up for another hail of gunfire, he tell Diaz "When you opened the [car] door back there, that was perfect timing. You saved us.")

Diaz is consummate Cameron Diaz. Her character is smart and clumsy, cute and sexy. It just seems to come naturally to her.

The film is pretty much the standard formula. The damsel in distress (even though it was our protagonist that put her there), the McGuffin (in this case the Zephyr, a power source that never needs recharging), the uber-geek who created it, the misunderstood hero, and did I mention the international arms dealers?

The fight scenes and chase scenes stand for themselves, especially when you understand that Cruise and Diaz both did most of their own stunts. They are uniquely choreographed and deliver exactly what you would expect from this type of thriller.

Would I say cancel your plans for tonight and go see it ASAP? Probably not. Could you wait for the DVD release? Absolutely, you wouldn't be missing anything seeing it on the small screen. If you have nothing else to do and are in the mood for an action-comedy would you be satisfied? In my humble opinion, it would make for an enjoyable evening, maybe followed by a dinner of pizza and wine.

After careful deliberation, I am going to give Knight and Day 3-1/2 popcorns. Although it probably didn't hurt that they mentioned Lake Sunapee, where I spent most of my summers in my formative years.