Henry Saw: Knight and Day and Harry Brown

Two quick reviews for movies that have nothing to do with one another...





Knight and Day: This Tom Cruise / Cameron Diaz movie kind of just came and went at the end of June without much fanfare. Most of the reviews that I read were slightly negative, and highly cynical, about the film. At this point Tom Cruise seems to has completely destroyed his ability to make a movie the critics will allow themselves to enjoy. Knight and Day is far from a great movie, heck its not exactly a good movie, but I had fun with most of it.

IMDB's plot description: June Havens finds her everyday life tangled with that of a secret agent who has realized he isn't supposed to survive his latest mission. As their campaign to stay alive stretches across the globe, they soon learn that all they can count on is each other.

The plot in Knight and Day is pretty much inconsequential. If you've seen one romantic-spy-thriller (True Lies, this year's Killers, etc.) then you know how little the story matters in these types of films. There are only two things to consider with this sub-genre of film: How are the action scenes and how is the chemistry between the two stars?

Well the action scenes in Knight and Day are surprisingly competent. There is an opening fight on a plane that is quite well done and a chase scene through Boston that is easy to follow (which is all I ask of my chase scenes at this point). As the film goes on the action gets less interesting, despite a scene involving the running of the bulls in Spain, and the way in which Diaz would be drugged by Cruise at the end of almost all of them was really silly. Still, director James Mangold (who made 3:10 to Yuma) has made a slick Hollywood action movie.



This is Cruise and Diaz's second film together, though there relationship in this film is very different than in Vanilla Sky, and they don't really work together. It is more on Diaz, there's something just false about her in everything she's in, but I will say that she is better in this than she's been in a long time. Cruise is still an entertaining presence on screen even after all his craziness. He's back in cocky and wired Tom-Cruise mode for this one and it was actually fun to see again.

The villains are boring, the whole thing is predictable, and it never rises above the the most middling movie of its kind, but whether its just because I was in the right mood for it, I had a good time watching Knight and Day. Cannot recommend it necessarily, but there have been many worse movies this year, and its worth a watch once it reaches cable.



Harry Brown

Quick word about this small English movie that was in theaters for a few weeks earlier this summer. Michael Caine plays a veteran who is sick of watching teenagers terrorize his neighborhood and his friends. It would be easy, and not wholly inaccurate, to compare this movie to Gran Torino. Except Harry Brown avoids casting horrible young actors in key supporting rolls and has Harry Brown actually do something unlike Clint Eastwood's character.

Harry Brown exists as a vehicle for Michael Caine. Emily Mortimer appears in a thankless role as a detective, and there are other recognizable faces in the cast, but this is the Michael Caine show. And he is...well...Michael Caine. He's always good, he is always believable, and he really is an international treasure. I didn't think Harry Brown worked perfectly, its a bit slow and serious, but it's interesting enough and Michael Caine can carry even the weakest material by himself.



Ben also saw Harry Brown and I asked him to share his thoughts -

Ben: "Vigilante movies usually seem to come out when there's a widespread public feeling of decline and decay in a society. The world of UK council housing seems to fit the bill. So here we have 'Deathwish' with an old British pensioner. In this case, though, the movie clearly wants the moments where Caine kicks the ass of some young thugs to frame the various messages it wants to get across: the crappiness of these neighborhoods (a spin on ghettoes, really), the ham-handed, thoughtless way the government responds to that crappiness, the decline of the UK's moral fiber. (There are other messages, but you'll catch on quickly since the movie is about as subtle as a car wreck.)

The action is actually fairly well done and stays within the bounds of what seems believable for an old man with the character's background to be able to do. The performances are uneven but Caine is fine and some of the thugs do a fair job as villains. Ultimately, the movie is very much within the vigilante canon: bleak, mean and bluntly constructed but because it has such a preachy emphasis on the social picture it can't be enjoyable B-movie pulp in the vein of a Charles Bronson flick. It's not an outright bad movie but it doesn't do much of anything well so I can't think of a ton to recommend it except as a way to see a side of the UK that many Americans are totally unfamiliar with or as a check-box for Michael Caine completists."


So there you go. Two very different movies but in the end they get the same grade...

Knight and Day Grade: C+

Best scene: The opening fight on the plane


Harry Brown Grade: A weak B-

Best Scene: "You failed to maintain your weapon, Son."