FILM REVIEW OF ''BRIDGE OF SPIES" (2015)

Historians have chronicled the events during the intervening fifty-three years in director Steven Spielberg’s gripping Cold War thriller “Bridge of Spies” (**** OUT OF ****), so little comes as a complete surprise.  Despite the conspicuous absence of suspense, this lavishly produced, persuasively acted, and thoroughly engrossing film remains utterly captivating.  Working from a screenplay by Matt Charman, rewritten by Joel and Ethan Cohen of “Fargo” fame, Spielberg makes largely minor departures from the actual occurrences as they unfolded and recreates history with nimble spontaneity.  (The theft  of the hero's overcoat is an example of fabrication.  According to the real James Donovan, who wrote about these events in his book "Strangers on a Bridge," he caught a cold from the drafty room that he slept in in West Berlin.) Tom Hanks plays the congenial central character in this literate chess game of international espionage that opens with the arrest of a Soviet spy in America and culminates on a lonely Berlin bridge at dawn with rival world superpowers swapping the spy for captured U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.  Spielberg doesn’t squander a second in this atmospheric narrative and shoehorns a plethora of action into 135 minutes without resorting to glamorous heroics and gratuitous pyrotechnics.  Everybody always raves about the magnitude of story above all else, and “Bridge of Spies” exemplifies why a good, solid story—even one that has been well-documented in the international press at the time—can still yield an immensely satisfying film.  Each character stands out dramatically and each has been etched with sympathy so we are concerned about their welfare even though everything is a foregone conclusion.  At the heart of the matter, “Bridge of Spies” qualifies as a credible, bona fide “Mission Impossible” when you consider all the variables that the unseen hand of history brought to the table.  What makes it doubly interesting is that only a singular incident like this could have ushered these individuals to each other’s company.

“Bridge of Spies” unfolds with the FBI arresting Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance of “Prospero's Books”) in Brooklyn during 1957.  Abel had maintained a low-profile as one of the top Soviet spies in America.  Masquerading as an artist, he was able to collect information without calling attention to himself.  The Soviets relied on what are known as dead letter mail boxes.  Information could be stashed and retrieved, without it being apparent to most people, in innocuous places.  Abel sat on a bench one day to paint a picture of a bridge.  As he adjusted his easel, he felt under the bench and found a hollowed coin containing a coded message.  Later, after the Feds raided his studio apartment, Abel destroyed the message under their noses while they ransacked his premises for incriminating evidence.  At this point, Brooklyn insurance claims attorney James Donovan (Tom Hanks of “Forrest Gump”) enters the arena.  The law firm where he is a partner informs him that the New York Bar Association wants him to serve as Abel’s pro-bono counsel so nobody can impugn American justice.  Mind you, everybody but Donovan considers Abel’s conviction a foregone conclusion.  Of course, he concedes he has been chosen to defend the most hated man in America.  “Everyone will hate me,” Donovan laments, “but at least I’ll lose.”  Neither Donovan’s wife, Mary (Amy Ryan of “Capote”), nor his children share his idealistic, high-flown principles.  Nevertheless, Donovan goes into court swinging with everything that he has, and he discovers the deck has been stacked against him.  Judge Byers (Dakin Matthews of “Thirteen Days”) refuses to grant Donovan adequate time to prepare Abel’s defense.  Later, when Donovan advises Byers that the FBI had no search warrant so all the evidence should be banned, the judge ignores him.  Inevitably, despite his noble efforts, Donovan cannot clear Abel.  Later, Donovan visits the judge at his honor’s residence and persuades the crusty old jurist to display some good ole American compassion and sentence the Soviet to prison rather than the electric chair.  “If we send this guy to his death,” Donovan opines, “we leave ourselves wide open.  No policy in our back pocket for when the storm comes.”  Byers heeds Donovan’s sage wisdom despite frenzied public opinion that greets him during his verdict.

In the meantime, the CIA recruits U.S.A.F. pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell of “Whiplash”) to fly a high altitude jet to conduct aerial reconnaissance over the U.S.S.R.  During his first flight for the CIA designated ‘Operation Grand Slam’ on May 1, 1960, Powers encounters trouble.  A Soviet surface-to-air missile cripples Power’s plane.  His canopy cracks open, and he is swept out onto the fuselage, dangling from the umbilical cord of his air hose.  Despite his best efforts to destroy his U2 plane, Powers can reach the destruct switch.  This qualifies as the most suspenseful moment in “Bridge of Spies.”  As he deploys his chute, Powers narrowly avoids being struck by the debris of his falling plane.  Of course, the Soviet capture Powers, convict him as a spy, and sentence him to three years in prison and seven more at hard labor..  Not long afterward, Donovan receives a letter from the Soviets and finds himself flying to Berlin as a private citizen to arrange a prisoner exchange: Abel for Powers.  Donovan gets the royal runaround from the Soviets as well as the East Berlin authorities with their conflicting political agendas.  Nonetheless, he proves himself to be a shrewd man with a bargain, and he pits the Soviets against East Berlin. Ultimately, he never gives ground during these tense negotiations.  The catch is he must negotiate between the superpowers as a private individual. Read Donovan’s insightful memoir “Strangers on the Bridge,” and you’ll have a new appreciation for this wily attorney.  Another excellent book to read about this incident is Giles Whittell’s informative “Bridge of Spies,” which doesn’t appear in the credits as the source for Spielberg’s movie.

Hanks brings an ingratiating ‘aw shucks’ Jimmy Stewart charm to his portrayal of Donovan.  Literally, “Bridge of Spies” could be seen as “Mr. Smith Goes to Berlin.”  Hanks looks like a paunchy, unassuming figure without a clue, but he emerges as the sharpest tack in the box.  Donovan’s history is pretty amazing when you think about what he accomplished.  Meantime, Mark Rylance distinguishes himself as the enigmatic Soviet spy Rudolf Abel and he overshadows Hanks with a ‘less is more’ performance.  Repeatedly, Donovan makes comments about Abel’s apparent lack of anxiety.  Facing certain death, the imperturbable Abel refuses to let the pressure affect him.  “Would it help?” he queries Donovan to worry about his fate.  Austin Stowell reminded me of cub reporter Jimmy Olsen from the 1950s’ “Superman” TV show.  He epitomizes the wholesome, clean-cut, square-jawed, but ambitious American who refused to commit suicide and struggled to make the best of a dreadful predicament. 

Spielberg does an admirable job of condensing and cross-cutting these events.  Budgeted at $40 million, “Bridge of Spies” looks authentic with its multiple period locations in American and Europe.  Indisputably, “Bridge of Spies” couldn’t have been made during the Cold War because objectivity would have been severely compromised.  Spielberg’s historical reenactment is relevant because contemporary American democracy faces similar challenges.

FILM REVIEW OF "MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE--ROGUE NATION" (2015)

The latest installment in the “Mission: Impossible” film franchise ranks as one of the best.  “Jack Reacher” director Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible--Rogue Nation” (**** OUT OF ****) rivals its superlative predecessor “Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol” with spine-tingling suspense and spectacularly staged set-pieces.  Mind you, things haven’t always been so first-rate.  The initial “Mission: Impossible” movie was arguably exciting enough in its own right, especially when Tom Cruise suspended himself Spider-man style at CIA Headquarters to hack a computer.  Nevertheless, the film portrayed one of the most beloved television series characters in such a sacrilegious light that most “Mission: Impossible” fanatics abhorred it.  I grew up watching Peter Graves play Jim Phelps from 1967 to 1973 and then again briefly from 1988 to 1990 on the weekly, hour-long, CBS-TV program, and the heretical notion that Phelps could turn traitor constituted nothing short of blasphemy.  Little did it matter that the people who produced “Mission: Impossible” gave Phelps legitimate grounds for his treachery.  Comparably, this would be tantamount to turning either Marshal Dillon of “Gunsmoke” into a homicidal hellion or indicting Andy Griffith’s Sheriff Andy Taylor for police brutality.  Never has a film franchise impugned a television character’s virtuosity with such cavalier abandon.

As the second entry in the Paramount franchise, director John Woo’s “Mission Impossible II” emerged as a vast improvement over the original and got things straightened out.  The head-butting motorcycle confrontation between Ethan Hunt and the villain is something to remember as well Woo’s choreographed gunfights.  Unfortunately, the stimulating third installment “Mission Impossible III” made an error almost as egregious as defaming Jim Phelps.  Tom Cruise and director J.J. Abrams gave Ethan Hunt a wife to worry about, and that matrimonial madness provided the motive force in its contrived melodrama.  The secret agent with a double life and a wife is the stuff of spoofs, and the marriage plot was predictable.  Perhaps if they had substituted Hunt’s parents (remember them from the 1996 original?) for his wife, the idea might have been more palatable.  As swiftly as the franchise got Ethan hitched, it got him just as quickly unhitched with ambiguous details.    “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” kept Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) separated from his wife, and he reverted to single status as he had in “Mission Impossible II.”  Happily, neither Cruise nor his latest collaborators have pulled anything as idiotic as “Mission Impossible III” with “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.”

Like the best James Bond extravaganzas, “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” opens with a cliffhanger gambit.  Ethan Hunt scrambles atop the wing of a military cargo plane, an Airbus A400M, as it trundles down the runaway for take-off.  He slaloms off the wing down to the fuselage and seizes a convenient door handle.  Hunt’s cyber genius colleague Benjamin Dunn (Simon Pegg of “Shaun of the Dead”) struggles to open the door remotely while Hunt clings desperately for dear life to it as the huge plane gains altitude.  Reportedly, Cruise performed this barnstorming stunt on his own on an actual plane with a special camera attached to the fuselage to record the exploit.  Frantically, Benji opens the wrong door, but eventually he opens the right door.  Hunt gains access to the cargo hold and spots the pallet of VX-nerve gas missiles.  The villains, a band of Chechen separatist fighters, discover Hunt’s presence too late, and he deploys the chute on the pallet, so both the missiles and he plunge into the blue.  This snappy incident is peripherally related to the plot, and it gets this outlandish escapade off on the right foot.  Mind you, this tense scene reunites Hunt with not only Benji but also series regular Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames of “Pulp Fiction”) and “Ghost Protocol” addition William Brandt (Jeremy Renner of “The Bourne Legacy”). 

This time around our heroic quartet wrestles with their worst nightmare: the Syndicate, an enigmatic league of terrorists, alluded to at the end of “Ghost Protocol,” that threaten not only to destroy the IMF but also initiate global chaos.  Predictably, of course, we know that Hunt and company will preserve the status quo.  Nevertheless, writer & director Christopher McQuarrie takes everything right to the brink and lets it teeter.  Earlier “Mission Impossible” movies relied on the plot device of ‘disavowing’ Ethan Hunt so he wound up as the man in the middle between the good guys and the bad guys.  “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” raises the stakes considerably by ostracizing the entire IMF Agency, with bureaucratic, stuffed-shirt CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alex Baldwin of “The Hunt for Red October”) arguing passionately for the IMF’s dissolution after the San Francisco incident involving a Russian nuclear missile.  Unless you’ve seen “Ghost Protocol,” you won’t know about this escapade.  Meantime, IMF Representative William Brandt refuses to confirm or deny anything about the mission to which Hunley refers in his efforts to convince a Senate Committee to shut down Brandt’s group.

In London, Hunt stumbles onto the Syndicate quite by accident when he is heading for a briefing at an album shop called The Vinyl Option.  He follows the usual procedure and enters a listening room with a recording.  The big difference, however, is this briefing doesn’t originate from his own organization but instead from the opposition—The Syndicate.  This shadowy, sinister organization consists of thousands of spies who have deserted their respective outfits and have been listed officially as dead.  Think of the vintage Nick Nolte shoot’em up “Extreme Prejudice” (1987) from director Walter Hill where Nolte’s small time sheriff dealt with murderous combat veterans reported killed in action.  Syndicate honcho Solomon Kane (Sean Harris of “Prometheus”) appears outside the booth, holds a silenced automatic pistol to the record shop clerk’s head, and shoots the poor girl in the noggin while a stupefied Hunt watches in horror from the listening booth as knock-out gas obscures his vision. When Hunt recovers consciousness, he finds himself in captivity, strapped to an eight-foot tall pole, in a locked, underground room.  Pretty but pugnacious Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson of “The White Queen”), a gorgeous babe with shapely legs who follows Kane’s orders to the letter, argues with a sadistic henchman called the ‘Bone Doctor’ (Jens Hultén of “Skyfall”) who wants to do more than question Hunt for information.  The ‘Bone Doctor’ wants to carve him up, but Hunt surprises him with a head butt that knocks his adversary unconscious.  A strenuously athletic bare-knuckled fight with the ‘Bone Doctor’s’ own henchmen ensues with Hunt decimating the opposition with Faust’s help.  Essentially, this is the bulk of everything you need to know.  McQuarrie’s movie with its complex, labyrinth-like plot defies synopsis.

“Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation” delivers everything that we’ve come to expect from this intrigue-laden, stunt-oriented, gadget-encumbered franchise.  Our resourceful heroes still sport those latex masks that they peel off at dramatic moments to surprise us.  Not surprisingly, they are required to break into and out of various buildings bristling with sophisticated security safeguards that sometimes challenge them to the point of death.  The debonair 53-year old Cruise performs his own perilous stunts, virtually all of them hair-raising, acrobatic endeavors.  He careens a small car around in a maze of narrow city streets with the villains in hot pursuit and then launches himself astride a motorcycle with daredevil gusto.  Meanwhile, director Christopher McQuarrie succeeds at making everything appear doubly difficult for our protagonists, and they encounter an improbable but death-defying gauntlet of obstacles that would stymie lesser souls.  Several scenes benefit from throttling tension because one set of heroes execute tasks that prevent another hero from either being captured or killed.  Cruise and co-star Rebecca Ferguson team up in several helter-skelter, close quarters, combat scenes that surely required lots of rehearsal.  Ferguson displays dazzling dexterity when she clashes with a henchman twice her size who wields a knife far larger than her blade.  One of the best sequences has Cruise debating which villain to perforate before either assassinates a foreign dignitary during a live opera performance.  Simon Pegg supplies the incidental comic relief that seasons this largely straightforward saga, while Sean Harris is effectively malicious as the chief villain.  Everything from “Tomorrow Never Dies” lenser Robert Elswit’s widescreen cinematography to James D. Bissell’s production designs is appropriately polished to virtual perfection.  The fifth globe-trotting “Mission Impossible” foray qualifies as a rapid-fire, white-knuckled, adrenalin-laced, nail-biter with momentum that never slackens and surprises that always astonish.

 

FILM REVIEW OF ''KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE" (2015)

Imagine putting the James Bond movies into a cinematic blender with the Austin Powers comedies, and you’ll see what British director Matthew Vaughn does with his outlandish movie “Kingsman: The Secret Service.”  For the record, Vaughn made his first film as a director in 2004 with the murderous mobster melodrama “Layer Cake” (2004) starring Daniel Craig.  Three years later he followed up “Layer Cake” with “Stardust.”  This imaginative Neil Gaiman fantasy romance bore little resemblance to the gritty “Layer Cake.”  Vaughn didn’t come into his own until he adapted Mark Millar’s subversive graphic novel “Hit Girl” as the Nicolas Cage actioneer “Kick Ass.”  This controversial revenge thriller about a dad and daughter who dressed like comic book super-heroes to destroy a dastardly gangster spawned a sequel.  Vaughn’s biggest success came with the incomparable Marvel Comics “X-Men” prequel “X-Men: First Class” about the costume-clad mutants in their youth during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.  Vaughn has recycled many of the themes and characters from those movies for his adaptation of Mark Millar’s graphic novel “Kingsman: The Secret Service”(***1/2 OUT OF ****) that features Colin Firth, Michael Caine, and Mark Strong.  This uneven but entertaining homage to the James Bond movies provides an overdue departure from the usual formulaic, testosterone laden fare that sacrifices wit and style for realism and gore.  Mind you, Vaughn grinds his action gears during the early scenes as he sets up his improbable plot.  Happily, he has everything running smoothly for an explosive finale.  The big problem that Vaughn had to contend with in launching a new franchise was pairing relatively unknown actor Taron Egerton with veteran actor Colin Firth who rarely plays armed and deadly heroes.  Meanwhile, sympathetic heroes and treacherous villains tangle mercilessly in this larger-than-life, hyperbolic espionage escapade that could easily qualify as “50 Shades of Blood” for its sensational number of mind-blowing action scenes.  Hundreds of thousands of people perish when an evil megalomaniac plans to solve overpopulation by implanting SIM cards into their heads, controlling their thoughts, and converting their cell phones into improvised explosive devices.  “Kingsman: The Secret Service” qualifies as the kind of silly but stout, R-rated saga that might repel squeamish moviegoers. 

Matthew Vaughn and his wife Jane Golden, who has collaborated on every film her husband has helmed except “Layer Cake,” have adapted Mark Millar’s graphic novel with the same audacious abandon that they infused in “Kick Ass.”  Indeed, they have made some extreme but inspired changes to Millar’s narrative.   For example, without giving anything away, the villain in the graphic novel was Caucasian; the villain’s second-in-command was male, and Mark Hamill played himself rather than a scientist. “Kingsman” concerns an independent, international espionage agency hidden behind the façade of an elite tailor's shop on London's Savile Row that operates at the highest level of discretion like “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” television series.  This private outfit makes Navy SEALs look like second-rate shrimp.  Indeed, if such an ultra-secret organization existed, world peace would be guaranteed.  Latter day British knights of the realm with appropriate code-names like Lancelot and Galahad, these dudes cut dashing figures in their globe-trotting missions to preserve peace and solidarity.  The cream of their crop, Harry Hart (Colin Firth), ranks as their top agent.  He is at his best when he has little more than an umbrella to vanquish the villains.  British actor Colin Firth, who plays the impeccably clad protagonist, has been acting since 1984, but he is known largely as a lightweight leading man in romantic comedies like “Mamma Mia!,” “Shakespeare in Love,” and “Bridget Jones’ Diary.”  In 2007, he ventured out of his comfort zone and played an armor-clad knight in the above-average medieval swashbuckler “The Last Legion.”  During one of Vaughn’s many impressively staged action set-pieces, Firth devastates a hatemongering Westboro-style church congregation in a no-holds-barred, free-for-all fracas. 

As “Kingsman” unfolds, Harry Hart’s closest comrade, Lancelot (Jack Davenport), dies during a mission but saves Harry’s life.  Predictably, Harry consoles Lancelot’s grieving widow and son.  Understandably distraught by her husband’s mysterious demise, Michelle Unwin (Samantha Womack of “Breeders”) wants nothing to do with Kingsman.  Nevertheless, Harry persuades her only son, Eggsy, to accept Lancelot’s medal inscribed with a phone number and a code word should he ever require help.  Seventeen years later, as an underprivileged teen living in the projects, Eggsy finds himself in deep trouble.  Our wild, impulsive hero steals an automobile belonging to a gang of loutish British lads who have been badgering him.  Commandeering their vehicle for a joyride, Eggsy careens through congested London traffic, driving the vehicle in reverse, with the police following him nose to nose, as he executes several complicated maneuvers.  Vaughn excels with suspenseful scenes like this careening car chase.  Later, with nobody to help him, Gary ‘Eggys’ Unwin (newcomer Taron Egerton) contacts Harry.  After Harry gets Eggsy out of the clink, he takes him for a tour of a local tailor’s shop that serves as a front for Kingsman.  Since he feels guilty about the death of Eggys’ dad, Harry helps the lad compete with other candidates for the job-of-a-lifetime as a Kingsman.  After surviving the gauntlet of an incredible obstacle course, Eggys stands poised to become a top agent who can match wits and swap fists with either James Bond or Jason Bourne.  Unfortunately, our hero commits some interesting mistakes before he can redeem himself in the eyes of the Kingsman and save the world. 

Samuel L. Jackson steals the show as goofy looking, Internet billionaire philanthropist Richmond Valentine.  Adopting with a quirky lisp, Jackson wears his baseball cap askew like a gangsta.  Clearly, Valentine represents Jackson’s best performance since “Pulp Fiction.”  Although the tongue-in-cheek Jackson overshadows handsome Harry Hart and his unusual arsenal of weapons, Valentine’s number one henchman--perhaps ‘henchm’am would be better--is a gravity-defying dame equipped with razor-sharp, 'Flex-Foot Cheetah' blade feet, who slices up her adversaries like deli meat.  Nothing can prepare you for Algerian dancer Sofia Boutella of “StreetDance 2” when she performs her breathtaking acrobatic feats in a variation on Oddjob and his razor sharp bowler hat from the Bond groundbreaker “Goldfinger.”  Altogether, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” amounts to amusing but polished nonsense.

FILM REVIEW OF ''KNIGHT AND DAY" (2010)

“Walk The Line” director James Mangold and television scenarist Patrick O’Neill must have watched a bunch of European espionage thrillers from the 1960s before they made the new Tom Cruise & Cameron Diaz movie “Knight and Day.” This predictable but entertaining international actioneer brings Cruise and Diaz together as two people on the lam from Federal agents and a trigger-happy Spanish arms dealer. The first time that Cruise and Diaz worked together, they made the murky “Vanilla Sky” (2001) with Kurt Russell. Indeed, “Knight and Day” (**1/2 out of ****) qualifies as a big improvement over “Vanilla Sky.” Furthermore, “Knight and Day” surpasses the similar themed “Killers” with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl. Nevertheless, this breathlessly paced, Alfred Hitchcock style, thriller lacks the flair of Cruise’s “Mission Impossible 2” that Hong Kong action maestro John Woo turned into a slow-motion bullet ballet with our hero surviving some pretty incredible predicaments. “Knight and Day” boasts its share of hair-raising, cliff-hanger scenes. Most of them, however, have been performed before without blue screens and Mangold cannot substitute momentum for imagination. This is one of those improbable shoot’em up sagas where the virile hero is mighty handy with any fully automatic weapon in sight. He knows a thing or two about riding on the hood of a careening car while firing at multiple villains pursing him. In fact, some of the scenes here look as if they were lifted from “Tomorrow Never Dies,” “Wanted,” “Moonraker,” and “Charade,” not to mention all those Euro-thrillers. Audiences looking for something different may enjoy this above-average but contrived travelogue with fantastic photography and a credible cast.

Tom Cruise plays Roy Miller. This Roy Miller has nothing in common with the Roy Miller that Matt Damon portrayed in the superior Iraq thriller “Green Zone.” Cruise’s Roy works for the CIA. He has stolen a small, D-sized battery that is "the first perpetual energy source since the sun." He explains to June (Cameron Diaz of “The Box”) that the Zephyr “isn’t your average Duracell." In fact, this is one battery that never has to be recharged. The darned thing runs forever. In the Hitchcock thrillers, the object that motivates the plot is referred to as a MacGuffin. Basically, a MacGuffin is something that the good guys and the bad guys are prepared to kill each other for to acquire. FBI agent Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard of “Orphan”) heads up the team of gun-toting agents nipping at Roy’s heels. At the Wichita, Kansas, airport, Roy spots pretty June and slips the Zephyr into her luggage packed with spare car parts so that it will make it through airport security. Initially, when she tries to board the plane, the airline attendant informs June that she will have to take a later flight. Savvy Fitzgerald spotted the switch in the terminal and allows June to get a seat on the flight. Roy was hoping that this wouldn’t happen. Naturally, June is surprised when she finds more than three-fourths of the seats aboard empty. Roy and she strike up a conversation. She reveals that she restores old cars. The jetliner hits turbulence and Roy catches her falling luggage before it smashes into her. All of this happens so quickly that June spills her drink into her lap. She heads off to the restroom to clean up. While she is in the restroom, she wonders about this mysterious guy. Meanwhile, Roy has his hands full with several tough customers who try to kill him, including the pilots. He dispatches them all as if he had been trained by James Bond and Jason Bourne. When June emerges from the toilet, everybody—including the pilots—lay dead, and Roy crash lands the jetliner in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere at night. Predictably, as they are trudging away from the crash, the fuselage bursts into flames and several terrific explosions ensue.

Roy explains to June that some suspicious people are going to visit her. They are going to tell her a lot of bad things about him. For example, they are going to call him a rogue agent with little regard for life and no qualms about killing. They are also going to tell her that they are going to take her to a safe and secure place. Roy warns June not to climb into a vehicle with these liars. Moreover, whenever they mention the words ‘safe’ and ‘secure’ they are planning on killing her. Afterward, he knocks her out with a drugged drink so he can get her out of the line of fire. Keeping June out of the line of fire is somewhat more difficult than Roy envisaged. He has to abduct her at gun point in broad daylight from a Boston diner to clear her name. During this abduction, Roy has to shoot her ex-boyfriend, Boston firefighter Rodney (Marc Blucas of “Animals”), in the thigh to dissuade him from following them. If June appears to be Roy’s hostage, then the authorities—principally the CIA's director of counterespionage, Ms. George (Viola Davis of “Law Abiding Citizen”)—won’t think that she is a conspirator. Meanwhile, Spanish arms dealer Antonio Quintero (Jordi Mollà of “The Alamo”) dispatches hordes of gunmen dressed like an army of SWAT riot patrolmen to descend on our heroes.

Clocking in at 110 minutes, “Knight and Day” lunges from one outlandish predicament to another like a hyperactive James Bond thriller. The audience will find itself in the same shoes that June—the ultimate innocent bystander without a clue—wears because both the good guys and the bad guys parcel out information piecemeal to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with the slam-bang stunts, reckless high speed car and motorcycle stunts, and the exploding SUVs that somersault through the air. Cruise musters his boyish “Risky Business” charisma and Diaz flaunts her terrific body. They are both sympathetic characters, and director James Mangold has the good sense to slap on layers of comedy to undercut some of the high body count shoot-outs. Nevertheless, “Knight and Day” seems too incoherent and second rate to top even Cruise’s worst “Mission Impossible” thriller—“Mission Impossible 3”—and the surprises aren’t very surprising in the long run.