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‘Knight And Day’: Run Time, By Kurt Loder

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in an over-amped but underpowered spy tale. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in “Knight and Day” Photo: Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises Anyone who’s ever been trapped on a plane flight from Hell — squashed by sprawling seatmates, battered by passing backpacks, besieged by squalling brats — will appreciate the elegant simplicity of Tom Cruise’s solution to similar problems: He kills everybody. Literally. But then they were trying to kill him. Even the pilots. Which is why they’re dead, too. Emerging from the loo, Cameron Diaz is surprised to find that she and Tom are now alone, unless you count corpses as company. And she’s worried — the plane is diving fast. Tom will handle that. (“No need to panic.”) But then what? The answer to that question has been clear in every espionage-romance dating back at least to Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps.” The answer is: Run! If only “Knight and Day” gave these two much else to do. Playing rogue CIA agent Roy Miller, Cruise deploys his smooth charm to ravishing effect — we’re reminded again of what a supple comic actor he can be. And as innocent bystander June Havens, Diaz, with her eager eyes and engulfing grin, is adorable throughout. But the script, by first-time screenwriter Patrick O’Neill, doesn’t have enough of the breezy wit that makes a classic spy-chase movie like “North by Northwest” so pleasurable. There are some good lines. (Noting that trouble-magnet Roy has been wounded at one point, June deadpans, “You have to go to the hospital. Prison, maybe.”) But director James Mangold (“Walk the Line”) is mostly intent on goosing the action along from one nifty set of stunts to the next. The stunts are pretty great — especially a heavy-damage highway chase (which seems fresher than usual here) and a wild escape through a Spanish bull-run stampede. But we miss the stylish downtime that would allow us to catch our breath. And we miss the romance. Cruise and Diaz have real chemistry, but the script doesn’t enable them to do much with it. (Although there is a cute moment when she wakes up in a bikini she wasn’t wearing when she passed out. Too bad this sexy tease doesn’t build into anything interesting.) In the traditional way, the story is a flimsy thing; and in the traditional way, that doesn’t matter. Roy is being chased by a team of his former CIA colleagues led by an inscrutable character named Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard). Fitzgerald is convinced that Roy has lost his mind and absconded with an ultra-powerful device called the Zephyr. (“The biggest thing since the sun,” Roy says.) The determined spooks chase Roy and June — who has fallen into this mess by sheerest accident — from Boston to the Azores (where Roy maintains a private island) to Austria (look out for the assassin!) to the Spanish villa where an international arms dealer named Antonio (Jordi Moll

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Posted in Celebrities, Gossip, Hollywood, Music

Tagged action, austria, Boston, Cameron Diaz, celeb news, cinematography, Hollywood, mind, Money, news article, peter-sarsgaard, romance, script, Sex

Tom Cruise And Will.I.Am Explain How ‘Knight And Day’ Song Came To Be

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

‘When you can collaborate with a film you love, that’s a rare moment,’ Will tells MTV News of ‘Someday.’ By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Photo: MTV News What happened when mega movie star Tom Cruise met mega music star Will.I.Am? The song “Someday,” which the Black Eyed Peas hitmaker composed for Cruise’s upcoming summer thriller, “Knight and Day.” MTV News recently caught up with Cruise and Will to talk about how their collaboration came to be. “First of all, I’m a fan of the Peas,” Cruise told MTV News. “We met at a charity event and got to talking: ‘We’ve got to find something to do together.’ … We were three-fourths of the way done [filming] ‘Knight and Day,’ and the Peas were playing in Miami, so we all went — Kate [wife Katie Holmes], Cameron [Diaz] and all of us went to go see them over Super Bowl weekend. As we were watching, it occurred to me that this is the perfect time, so I called up Will, and he doesn’t have any time, but I asked, ‘Are you interested [in doing a song for the film]?’ ” “I made time,” said Will, who was then shown portions of the film to get ideas for the track. “It was easy, because the film was so good and it inspired me to write the song. When you can contribute and participate and collaborate with a film you love, that’s a rare moment. That’s a godsend.” Cruise was impressed with Will’s ability to immediately tap into the theme of the film — and the fact that he composed on his phone. “He wrote the song on his BlackBerry,” Cruise marveled. “Right in the room.” “I don’t like to let that inspiration fly away, so I jot it down in my notes,” Will explained. “For ‘Someday,’ the lyric was ‘Someday/ I don’t want it to be one day, I want it right now.’ So when I left the editing [room], I wanted to remember the emotion I was supposed to put into the song.” “It was very cool,” Cruise said of Will’s process. “[And] totally organic to the film. I think it’s an incredible song.” In the film, which has been described as a “sexy action/comedy,” Cruise is Agent Miller, a covert operative sent on a mission from which he was not intended to return. Diaz is June Havens, a woman caught between Cruise’s agent and those he claims set him up. Through a series of double-crosses, narrow escapes and mistaken identities, they soon realize they can only count on each other. “Knight and Day” is directed by James Mangold (“Walk the Line,” “3:10 to Yuma”) and also stars Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis, Paul Dano, Maggie Grace and Marc Blucas. The film opens June 25. The Black Eyed Peas debuted “Someday” on Thursday at an afterparty that followed their concert at London’s O2 arena. At their Friday show in London, Cruise joined the group onstage and helped them perform their chart-topping song “I Gotta Feeling.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Knight and Day.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Artists Will.I.Am