What Went Wrong With ‘Knight & Day’?

If you read my previous review, you’d know that ‘Knight & Day’ is a great film. But the box office numbers left many scratching their head. Why would such a good movie have such a mild opening? Movieline attempts to answer this question, and I agree with everything except the Tom Cruise factor. The film was a marketing nightmare, and Tony Sella (Twentieth Century Fox’s co-president of marketing) agrees. “Blame me, not Tom Cruise,” says Sella. Okay Tony – I blame you. Because of the horrible trailer, most people have no idea what ‘Knight & Day’ is even about, and the title certainly doesn’t help. I guess Tom Cruise is the “Knight”? He works for the federal government, so unless he’s riding a horse over to Cameron Diaz’s castle, I don’t get it. Personally, I would have called it “The Spy Who Saved Me?”, and gone the quarky route, because no one really understands that this film is an action-comedy, and not just pure action. What’s unfortunate, is that Tom Cruise is getting the blame for someone else’s misstep. He’s fantastic, and the constant questions about whether moviegoers are turned off by him, makes my blood boil. He’s literally one of the last great actors left that is still makes great films (did I mention that he’s ageless?). So go see ‘Knight & Day’ and take my word for how great it is.