Manic Cruise Shines in Knight and Day

Lighthearted spy thriller Knight and Day is an entertaining, if not especially memorable, summer movie, say critics. How much you'll like it, they say, depends very much on how much you like Tom Cruise, who plays a crackpot CIA agent.

• Knight and Day "is hardly a perfect film, not even close, but it is the most entertaining made-for-adults studio movie of the summer, writes Kenneth Turan at the Los Angeles Times. "One of the reasons it works at all is the great skill and commitment Cruise brings to the starring role."

• Cruise and co-star Cameron Diaz make "a surprisingly charming couple," writes Claudia Puig at USA Today. "They have an easy banter amid almost non-stop action."
• Action scenes meant to be over-the-top are just ridiculous, complains Rene Rodriguez at the Miami Herald. "A motorcycle chase through the streets of Spain during the running of the bulls is a great idea. A motorcycle chase through the streets of Spain during the running of computer-generated bulls is not a great idea," he writes.
• Tom Cruise has become a lot more interesting since he jumped up and down on Oprah's couch, writes Ty Burr at the Boston Globe. Knight and Day is "a piece of high-octane summer piffle: stylish, funny, brainless without being too obnoxious about it, and Cruise is its manic animating principle."

(More action movie stories.)