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Two out of Five stars
Running time: 109 mins

Lazily directed and poorly written, this is a disappointing action thriller-slash-romcom that wrongly thinks it can get by on star power alone.

What's it all about?
Directed by James Mangold, Knight and Day stars Cameron Diaz as June Havens, a ditzy blonde vintage car-restorer who bumps into manic, possibly rogue secret agent Roy Knight (Tom Cruise) in an airport and is slightly taken aback when he takes out an entire plane full of assassins and they end up crashing, somewhat prophetically, in a field of corn. Before long, she's being whisked around the world for a scenic tour of gunfights and explosions as Roy tries to protect a nerdy genius inventor (Paul Dano) while staying one step ahead of the agents (Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis) on his trail.

The Good
Knight and Day gets off to a good start – the fight sequence on the plane (scored with catchy tango music) is inventive and fun and the editing between Cruise kicking ass and Diaz obliviously fixing her make-up in the bathroom is nicely done. Sadly, that's the high point of the film and it's all downhill from there.

Cruise and Diaz are fine and have a modicum of chemistry, though you do spend all their scenes wondering whether Cruise stood on a box or they dug Diaz a trench. Unfortunately, the film is wrongly convinced that the Cruise-Diaz star power machine is all they need, with the result that the likes of Sarsgaard and Dano are lumbered with hideously underwritten characters and given next to nothing to do.

The Bad
The script is unbelievably lazy and relies too heavily on a running joke where Roy knocks June out whenever they need to change locations. There's also no attempt to give their relationship any depth and the one moment that looks promising is quickly ignored.

Apart from anything else, the title makes no sense – no one is named Day and the film takes place over more than one day. Similarly, the trailer is misleading (the motorbike scene happens differently in the film) and makes you long for a twist that never comes while there's also the inescapable conclusion that the film would have been more interesting if Knight really was delusional and dangerous instead of just having gone a little bit rogue.

Worth seeing?
This is a lazily written action flick that relies too heavily on star power and CGI and is ultimately too shallow to deliver as either a thriller or a romcom. Disappointing.