Should you see 'Knight and Day' this week? According to Rotten Tomatoes, 51% of you should

  Should you see Knight and Day this weekend?  51% of critics say you should.

Well, Tom Cruise has a new movie in theaters.  And it's a comedy.  And it features Cameron Diaz.  Also, it's got almost the exact same plot as Killers, a rom-com-action monstrosity that descended upon an unsuspecting public earlier this month and has since bombed like it intended to all along.  The trailers for Knight and Day have received mixed reactions from the public, but there remains a healthy portion of the population that isn't ready to give up on Cruise just yet.  Now that the film's in theaters, critics are weighing in on the flick.  So, should you see it?  We'll be back later in the week with a review of the film, but until then, we've put together a compilation of some of the better (and worst) critics from around the internet to help you decide if you oughtta lay down your $10 to see Knight and Day before the end of the week.  Read on for the reviews, my gentle Examiner readers...

There are many, many people out there who are hoping (some more vocally than others) that Tom Cruise's latest action-comedy-- Knight and Day-- fails at the box office this weekend.  Over the past decade or so, Cruise has amassed one of the biggest backlashes that Hollywood's ever seen, and it's starting to seem like nothing he does will make everyone happy.  That said, the trailers for Knight and Day made the film look like it'd make for a good time in theaters, and despite all the petty hatred being shot Cruise's way, a good number of people have been looking forward to the flick.  So, should you see it?

According to the 51% the film is sitting at on RottenTomatoes.com, about half of you will enjoy the film.  I'm inclined to give the film a shot (I'll be seeing Knight and Day today or tomorrow and will be back with my review afterwards), but surely there are many of you that just can't make up your minds.  With that in mind, we've compiled some pull-quotes from the Knight and Day reviews that have come in to help you decide.  Let's start off with Rolling Stone, recently in the news for some political nonsense:

You can't discount the kick of watching an overqualified cast go slumming for the pure adrenaline thrill of it. But Knight and Day rises or falls on how you feel about the body-and-soul chemistry between Cruise and Diaz, who first teamed in 2001's Vanilla Sky. It strikes me that their teasing and one-upmanship are more brother and sister at play than lovers in heat. Cruise and Diaz are in it for the action rush. You appreciate how hard they knock themselves out, but where's the sizzle? (Rolling Stone)

Rolling Stone gave the film two stars, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.  Meanwhile, one of our favorite critics-- Armond White-- had his review up with a quickness, perhaps because he took a good amount of flack for waiting until the last second to drop that ridiculous, negatvie Toy Story 3 review on everyone last week just in time to see it show up at the top of Rotten Tomatoes' homepage (White loves traffic).  Here's what he said:

Yet Cruise runs—a joke from his ’90s heyday—and playing a can-do spy, he flirts with the equally flirty Cameron Diaz, who plays the civilian woman who Cruise’s spy protects from violent double-agents who are after a secret new energy source. Too bad Sydney Pollack and Robert Towne aren’t around to insist on characterization over personality. Knight and Day’s script is less efficient than Killers; it’s just upmarket—but with the worst opening 20 minutes so far this year.

Oh, but wait: White's also gotta throw a Jonah Hex reference in there for everyone still whining about his positive review of that film last week:

There’s no kinetic rhythm, no From Paris With Love energy or craft, no Jonah Hex wit -- only a distorted, distended James Bondish marathon chase.

Yeah, I'm not going to link to Armond White's review.  Dude may love traffic, but I'm going to take my own advice and not feed that particular troll.  So, we're two-for-two as far as negative reviews go, but surely someone out there enjoyed the flick, right?  Let's take a look at what Ken Turan had to say over at The L.A. Times:

A genial romantic thriller that very much wants to be in the mold of such Alfred Hitchcock entertainments as "North by Northwest" and "To Catch a Thief," or even Stanley Donen's "Charade," "Knight and Day" is inevitably light on plausibility but, with Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis and Paul Dano joining Cruise, it is strong in the acting department.

Turan gives the film a fairly glowing review, and it's worth reading if you're one of the few internet readers that enjoys positivity over relentless negativity.  Let's take a look at another positive review, this one written by USA Today's Claudia Puig:

Watching Cruise and Diaz fend off stampeding bulls and elude bad guys as they zoom around the streets of Seville on a red motorcycle is a heap of fun. They have an easy banter amid almost non-stop action.

The globe-trotting adventures of June and Roy, her surprisingly chivalrous knight, are engaging, even if the twists don't always make sense and the villains are cartoonish. And the story falters toward the end when the premise is stretched thin.  But in a lackluster summer, Knight shines as an original that thankfully lacks 3-D projection, sequel connections or comic-book associations.

I don't normally agree with USA Today's reviews, and Puig's critique of the film isn't as glowing as Turan's is.  We're now two-for and two-against on this one.  Let's head on over to Ain't It Cool News, where Massawyrm seemed a lot less impressed with the film than anyone I've seen listed on Rotten Tomatoes:

Inexplicable. If I were to describe this with one and only one word, that would be it. Inexplicable. Walking out of this, I wasn’t entirely sure what the f--- it was that I’d just watched. It is a special brand of insanity that borders upon self-parody. It is not good; in fact, it barely qualifies as entertaining. I can see the kernel of the idea that interested FOX in making this, and I’ve heard from a number of sources that the original script WITCHITA is hilarious, but none of that translates here. KNIGHT AND DAY is a mess - a big budget, A-list disaster that will lead to some serious head scratching and navel gazing amid its fallout.

Wow.  That doesn't sound very good at all, does it?  Well, that's three bad reviews in a row.  With the film sitting at 51%, who shall we go with to be (not really) the tie-breaker?  Let's give one of my all-time favorite critics, Roger Ebert, the final word on this one:

"Knight and Day" aspires to the light charm of a romantic action comedy like “Charade” or “Romancing the Stone,” but would come closer if it dialed down the relentless action. The romance part goes without saying after a Meet Cute contrived in an airport, and the comedy seems to generate naturally between Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. But why do so many summer movies find it obligatory to inflict us with CGI overkill? I'd sorta rather see Diaz and Cruise in action scenes on a human scale, rather than have it rubbed in that for long stretches, they're essentially replaced by animation.

Ebert doesn't sound like he's crazy about the film in his full review-- or in that opening paragraph-- but he gave the film his three-star seal of approval.  Basically, there's just no telling if Knight and Day is going to be the sorta thing that you'll enjoy.  It seems to have divided critics right up the middle.  The people who didn't like the film have only faintly damning things to say about it, while the ones that enjoyed it seem to recommend it only vaguely.  What does this mean?  Well, in all likelihood, Knight and Day is a middle-of-the-road, inoffensive piece of entertainment to kill a few hours in the theater with.  If you haven't already caught one of the film's many trailers, check out the one we've embedded below, and be sure to stay tuned to the Comedy Examiner's Office-- later on in the week, we'll have a full review of the film up for you:

That's all we've got for you for now, folks, but stay tuned for more as it becomes available.  In the meantime, we've got all manner of funny videos, news, reviews, interviews, recaps, funny pictures, and more to keep you entertained all summer long, so hit the "Subscribe" button up top to get all of it delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, the moment it's published.  Why, if that wasn't enough, we've also got some other recent Comedy Examiner articles for you to look over while you're here:

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