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Knight and Day - 2/8/2010 7:14:50 PM

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Why has my post appeared umpteen times? - 3/8/2010 11:52:45 PM

Concise_Statement

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I don't want penalised for that. I only clicked once.

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RE: Why has my post appeared umpteen times? - 3/8/2010 11:54:31 PM

elab49

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You won't be - but there's nothing to stop you deleting it yourself if you want.

It can happen if you refresh in post, or repost if you get a fail message which actually isn't one.

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RE: Did I miss something? - 10/8/2010 1:52:48 PM

Gretzky

Posts: 307
Joined: 20/12/2005

quote:

ORIGINAL: lawsond28

Can anyone please explain why the film is called Knight and Day? OK, there was a small figurine of a knight that was used to hide the MacGuffin, but is that really part of the reason for the title? Surely not. Where was the tenuous 'Day' connection then? Answers on a postcard please.

I took it to mean that as a couple, Diaz and Cruise's characters were 'Night and Day' from each other in terms of personalities and lifestyles?

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RE: Did I miss something? - 10/8/2010 2:32:11 PM

Wild about Wilder

Posts: 1485
Joined: 9/4/2010
From: Hertfordshire

Not to bad the movie was a bit all over the shop, it felt a bit like a travel show jumping all over the world at least the cast got a nice holiday. 3/5

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Post #: 5

RE: Did I miss something? - 10/8/2010 7:20:27 PM

gunstar

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From: Star Lite Star Bright Trailer Park

Not bad at all. It's a bit like Grosse Pointe Blank for the undemanding.

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RE: Did I miss something? - 10/8/2010 9:58:51 PM

mike2005

Posts: 126
Joined: 2/10/2005
From: The Phantom Zone

quote:

ORIGINAL: lawsond28

Can anyone please explain why the film is called Knight and Day? OK, there was a small figurine of a knight that was used to hide the MacGuffin, but is that really part of the reason for the title? Surely not. Where was the tenuous 'Day' connection then? Answers on a postcard please.

******************SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT*********************************

The Tom Cruise character's original name was Matthew Knight, the name on the mailbox outside his parents' house was Knight. As for where Day comes from, not a frickin clue.

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Post #: 7

RE: Did I miss something? - 11/8/2010 12:56:27 AM

Groovy Mule

Posts: 1089
Joined: 26/11/2005

Oh dear! This will go down as one of the stinkers of the summer blockbuster period.

I found the first twenty minutes of this film truly excruiating. The dialogue between Cruise and Diaz is unbelievably clunky as it grinds along and I have to disagree and say that there is very little chemistry between the two of them. What follows is little better. All you need to know is this: there were at least 7 script doctors involved on this film.

There are plot holes galore. Don't know how to end a scene, that's fine just drug one of the protagonists and show it from their point of view (i.e. asleep) and lo and behold, you can move half way around the way in one 2 minute sequences. This is lazy in the extreme. Did the filmmakers really think that they could fool an audience in that way? Hitchcock had a way of making the MacGuffins in his film secondary to the mood, interplay between the characters and tense plotting. However, if like the makers of Knight and Day you have none of the above, you really need to make your MacGuffin work for you. It doesn't.

The laziness extends to the casting. The casting director clearly got the notes and went -
FBI Agent who might be a bit dodgy - Peter Sarsgaard wore a suit and looked dodgy in An Education we'll get him
Sassy female FBI agent - Viola Davis, again.
Geeky boy genius with social problems - Paul Dano, again.

There are some impressive moments of action, particularly in Salzburg and in Seville (although note to the producers - the running of the bulls takes place in Pamplona not Seville) but the whole thing falls flat. Not funny enough to be a comedy, not tense enough to be a Hitchcockian thriller and an example of studios rolling out the lowest common denominator and hoping for a return.

All involved deserve to fail.

PS - There is one other good thing. For the lack of chemistry between Cruise and Diaz, at one stage the proposed pairing for this film was Chris Tucker and Eva Mendes. Just think how much worse that would have been ... and breathe.

< Message edited by Groovy Mule -- 11/8/2010 1:00:44 AM >

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Post #: 8

RE: Pretty good actually - 12/8/2010 7:01:57 PM

Dr Lenera

Posts: 3450
Joined: 19/10/2005

You'd think this was really awful going by the reviews, but it's actually not bad at all, a highly enjoyable action movie which certainly has it's problems but generally delivers on it's promise on excitement and laughs. The plot, despite revolving about an especially silly 'MacGuffin' [not that that ever stopped Hitchcock], actually has a few surprises and is quite unpredictable at times, and the action, including a shoot out on a plane and two tremedous vehicle chases [one in which Tom Cruise is lying on the bonnet of the car shooting people and one involving, as this is a Cruise film, a motorbike], is very well staged, exciting and convincing for the most part. We should commend director James Mangold for actually letting us see the action for a change and not ruining it with irritating close ups, hyper fast editing and shaky cam. The constant globetrotting gets a bit too much, and for a while around the middle the film rather lazily has Cameron Diaz's character drugged so that a few subsequent events pass by in a flash. Things soon pick up again though, and the overall pace of the film never really slows down. There are quite a few laughs, especially near the beginning, revolving around the central relationship, and the general light touch is aided by John Powell's score, but there's a edge to the proceedings and a fair bit of black humour, such as when Cruise just can't stop shooting people. The two stars have good chemistry even if their characters haven't really been thought through very well and motivation is sometimes questionable. This is good fun though, and makes two hours pass pleasently enough.

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RE: Knight and Day - 17/8/2010 10:40:18 AM

TheIPDean

Posts: 1
Joined: 17/8/2010

this Film did not diserve the stick reviewers gave it. Taking all of it into account, it has Tom cruise who has a amazing screen presence. Camron is is fun and she is still very good at comedy. the action scenes are mixed with, amazing fights and some comedy moments inter twined. Th story is abit hammed together at some points but other than that I film worth seeing on DVD.

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Post #: 10

RE: Knight and Day - 17/8/2010 10:46:00 AM

Timon

Posts: 14545
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Bristol

It was enjoyable enough. Nothing groundbreaking but a fun two hours. I couldn't tell if the slightly dodgy reear projection in places was meant to be deliberate, like some sort of tribute to the chase films of the 50s or just lazy film-making, but I enjoyed it.

The Cruiser is always good value for money.

3/5

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Post #: 11

RE: Did I miss something? - 17/8/2010 2:01:45 PM

BelfastBoy

Posts: 452
Joined: 30/11/2005

quote:

ORIGINAL: Groovy Mule

Oh dear! This will go down as one of the stinkers of the summer blockbuster period.

I found the first twenty minutes of this film truly excruiating. The dialogue between Cruise and Diaz is unbelievably clunky as it grinds along and I have to disagree and say that there is very little chemistry between the two of them. What follows is little better. All you need to know is this: there were at least 7 script doctors involved on this film.

There are plot holes galore. Don't know how to end a scene, that's fine just drug one of the protagonists and show it from their point of view (i.e. asleep) and lo and behold, you can move half way around the way in one 2 minute sequences. This is lazy in the extreme. Did the filmmakers really think that they could fool an audience in that way? Hitchcock had a way of making the MacGuffins in his film secondary to the mood, interplay between the characters and tense plotting. However, if like the makers of Knight and Day you have none of the above, you really need to make your MacGuffin work for you. It doesn't.

The laziness extends to the casting. The casting director clearly got the notes and went -
FBI Agent who might be a bit dodgy - Peter Sarsgaard wore a suit and looked dodgy in An Education we'll get him
Sassy female FBI agent - Viola Davis, again.
Geeky boy genius with social problems - Paul Dano, again.

There are some impressive moments of action, particularly in Salzburg and in Seville (although note to the producers - the running of the bulls takes place in Pamplona not Seville) but the whole thing falls flat. Not funny enough to be a comedy, not tense enough to be a Hitchcockian thriller and an example of studios rolling out the lowest common denominator and hoping for a return.

All involved deserve to fail.

PS - There is one other good thing. For the lack of chemistry between Cruise and Diaz, at one stage the proposed pairing for this film was Chris Tucker and Eva Mendes. Just think how much worse that would have been ... and breathe.

Excellent review, Groovy Mule, and I agree with pretty much everything you said. It was my wife's turn to choose the film and she plumped for Knight and Day. (My choice would've been Inception, but hey...)

Knight and Day is pretty much the only film I can think of where, to employ and extend a hoary old cliche, you can not only see the plot holes on screen, but the film literally flies planes through them! I fully accept that the film is intended to be lighthearted, knockabout entertainment but surely there should be some sort of internal logic at work? It is disgracefully lazy that a big-budget movie with A-list stars has a script that wouldn't even get praise at film school criticism or as a spec script passed around on an online message board. Sadly, the various points in the film where either Tom or Cameron are partially conscious would probably have been more interesting than some of the stuff that was actually in the film. How, for example, did Tom escape from upside-down captivity? We'll never know because the writer / army of script doctors couldn't be arsed to show us.

There was also a surprising lack of charisma between Cruise and Diaz. This was especially disappointing when, if you look at something like their terrifically entertaining and bizarre appearance on Top Gear, they do appear to get on really well and had a great time working together. It just didn't come across on screen.

Finally, impressive as the action scenes are (poor and obvious CGI aside), anyone spot the not-so-subtle Mercedes product placement everywhere? This has got to be the only film I can think of where the villains make extensive use of Smart cars!

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Post #: 12

RE: Knight And Day: Great Fun. - 18/8/2010 11:43:47 AM

musht

Posts: 1143
Joined: 21/1/2009
From: Oireland

I think this review was spot on, an extremely so-so film, it had its moment but the plot was just so flimsy and the jokes just got tired, the sort of movie you can watch when there's little else

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RE: Knight And Day: Great Fun. - 18/8/2010 11:58:33 AM

Edward Nygma

Posts: 711
Joined: 28/12/2005

Would have given Knight and Day 3 stars myself, it wasn't GOOD but it wasn't bad either. It was fine: pretty ridiculous. But it feels self conscious, they're just having fun with all the cliches etc. action movies have to offer. Like The Cruiser turning in slo mo towards us as a plane explodes behind him: LOL People have compared it with North By Northwest but I find, with all the colourful locations etc. it's more like To Catch a Thief. It has that breezy, for the hell of it, holiday feel to it.

Where I think the film falls apart is in its pace and special effects. The film's rhythm is just not fast enough, it feels long...because it is. And that's a big problem. Like the whole plane sequence at the start is really good but it feels like it lasts 5 hours! Also, in terms of effects I thought the greenscreen during the action sequences was too often really obvious and badly done. This is very noticeable in the whole bulls scene. Really takes you out of the film.

As much as I hate Michael Bay, I kind of missed him in this one. He would have kept all the silliness intact (maybe even piled on gallons more of it) but at least the film would have looked good.

As for Cruise and Diaz, they were great. Diaz reminded me of Goldie Hawn in films like Foul Play: ditzy blonde lands head first in a full on action adventure thriller. Cruise clearly has a ball in yet another ego trip and I had a ball watching him being so obviously happy with his self-constructed badassness.

Best line:

(about the battery)
"It's hot..."
"Why?"
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Nice one guys. Welcome to batteries!!!

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Post #: 14

RE: Knight and Day - 4/12/2010 6:15:13 PM

Jeevan Singh

Posts: 28
Joined: 27/5/2010

A typical Hollywood action movie with the usual explosions and damsels in distress. There is nothing special about this movie, in fact it bores in places, which isn't helped by the fact that Tom Cruise has done this all before (Mission Impossible)! If your looking for a movie with plenty of guns & fighting and a pretty girl to look at (Cameron Diaz), then this is for you, otherwise don't bother.

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Post #: 15

Thought it was great - 26/12/2010 6:34:28 PM

lakota

Posts: 6
Joined: 1/6/2008

I think this is one of the best movies i've watched in a while, thought it were really funny, Tom and Cameron are great actors!

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Post #: 16

Knight & Day = Meh - 27/12/2010 1:24:53 PM

robwillphill

Posts: 393
Joined: 15/4/2007
From: Maidstone

It's one of those films where you leave the cinema either thinking "That was rubbish" or "That was... alright... I guess" - Knight & Day is nothing more than that.

5/10

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Post #: 17

RE: Knight & Day = Meh - 30/12/2010 11:29:31 AM

D-ToX

Posts: 203
Joined: 2/10/2005

I enjoyed the movie but it was a little on the long side and it just feels like Cruise and Diaz were in on the joke but no one else was told about it, still it is worth a watch and shows us again that Tom Cruise can be funny when he wants to.

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Post #: 18

messy - 4/6/2011 12:03:08 AM

tysmuse

Posts: 256
Joined: 24/9/2007

How Diaz keeps landing roles like this is beyond me, she's not funny and not pretty to look at, even in a bikini, she's unattractive. Cruise is pretty good, but the rest of this movie is a total mess! kinda boring and never really interesting or coherent. If Tom Cruise wasn't in it it would get one star.

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Post #: 19

RE: messy - 18/7/2011 9:53:34 AM

brucejackiejet

Posts: 45
Joined: 26/4/2011

quote:

ORIGINAL: tysmuse

How Diaz keeps landing roles like this is beyond me, she's not funny and not pretty to look at, even in a bikini, she's unattractive.

Um...think you might be in the minority with that opinion

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Post #: 20

RE: messy - 20/7/2011 9:54:50 AM

Gazz

Posts: 874
Joined: 30/9/2005

Knight and Day is a true mess of a film and that it was shot without a script is a fact that came as no surprise to me. Often the leads were wrote into no-way-out situations and instead of having the characters confront the obstacle the screen would simply fade to black before moving to the next action sequence as a way to excuse the fact the writers didn't have the imagination to overcome the very obstacle THEY had created.

Everytime the characters (whose names I have completely forgotten) were put into dangerous position or the film-makers felt the film needed yet another change of scenery they just had Cameron Diaz pass out. I mean the first time they went with the whole 'seeing the set-piece through the eyes of someone drifting in and out of consciousness' thing I thought it was a cute little touch. But to go on and do it a further 2 times cheats the audience out of any kind of tension and robs them of further spectacle, which is a bad thing considering spectacle was the whole point of the film right down to the casting of Cruise and Diaz. It's like the film takes toilet breaks whilst you're watching and then returns only to ask you to fill in the blanks.

FILM:
"Hey man, did you see that part where they got off the Island and away from the military drones in that action scene that led to that Train?"

ME:
"No"

FILM:
"Oh yeah, sorry about that. So, errr... what's happening now?"

ME:

Knight and Day was simply an excuse for the millionaire cast to take a globe-trotting holiday, get up to crazy antics and have some fun. Unfortunately that fun isn�t the contagious kind. In fact Knight and Day presents an experience akin to listening to a family member go on about their character-building holiday abroad and while they detail each and every magical thing they have witnessed or discovered about themselves over the past week you remember you�ve primarily spent the time fizzy burping during the mass consumption of 18 litres of Iron Bru and cry-wanking. Not only is it depressing on a wrist slitting level but soul destroyingly boring too.

The high point of my experience watching the film was when I painfully coughed up bile into my mouth and swallowed it with a wince.

It's a reaction I've renamed 'Diaz Reflux' in tribute to this film.

Fuck you/ 10

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Post #: 21

RE: messy - 21/7/2011 10:31:47 AM

nickyoung

Posts: 10
Joined: 9/7/2011

Last weekend, i have watched this movie and tom cruise is always best...

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Post #: 22

RE: messy - 21/7/2011 10:44:34 AM

floralane

Posts: 5
Joined: 21/7/2011

I like to watch this movie and I want to watch more action done by Cameron Diaz.

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Post #: 23

RE: messy - 22/7/2011 11:41:54 AM

DONOVAN KURTWOOD

Posts: 7670
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: PLANET G

realy enjoyed this movie. I mean it's total crap but i really enjoyed it. Some great action scenes

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Post #: 24

RE: messy - 22/7/2011 4:44:20 PM

darth silas

Posts: 4949
Joined: 1/10/2005
From: My living room

Rubbish film.Can't understand why Cruise did it as it's well below his standard.I really like the guy but he should have stayed away from spy films until he got round to the next Mission Impossible flick.

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Post #: 25

RE: messy - 21/11/2011 10:48:13 AM

Vitamin F

Posts: 558
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: Norn Ireland, so it is

Just watched this, and what a mess.
As exciting as watching the cut scenes from PS1 Tomb Raider games, with a few dodgy CGI shots that didin't help. Cruise was just not the right guy for the role at all (especially with regards to the 'humour' element) and the whole thing felt remarkably flat, considering it was a big action film with big set pieces.
To be fair I thought it actually started to pull itself off the floor in the last 20 mins, but too little too late.

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Post #: 26

2 stars!!!! - 10/3/2012 11:39:15 AM

jordan thomas

Posts: 37
Joined: 5/5/2010

I'm giving this five to defend it, you clearly didnt get the point of it. The film was meant to be absurd and tongue in cheek, im sick of seeing really slow paced realistic action films like the bourne films and even the bond films, this is a change back to formula that really works if you dont take it serious

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Post #: 27