BOTTOM LINE: “Knight And Day” has an intriguing take on an old formula and a solid start, but unfortunately turns in to stupidity and silliness by the climax, and its star leads share virtually no chemistry whatsoever.

THE GOOD: The best way to describe this film is to say it is a James Bond film told from the point of view of the Bond girl. In this way, “Knight and Day” starts off in a good place. Through a seemingly chance meeting at an airport, June Havens (Cameron Diaz) is pulled in to a deadly chase for secret agent Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) when the two of them are put together on the same flight. As June realises that Roy is a force to be reckoned with, the pair bicker and fight their way through a haze of gun fire and tricky situations, with June unable to figure out who the bad guy really is. The first thirty minutes of the film are perhaps the best, with Tom Cruise actually portraying the double-sided nature of his character quite well, and Cameron Diaz doing her usual ditzy blonde routine. Many of the action sequences are well realised, particularly the motorcycle chase in Spain. “Knight and Day” has been created as a piece of fun popcorn entertainment, with two likeable leads and the usual mayhem.

THE BAD: Although starting in a good place, “Knight and Day” quickly degenerates in to stupidity and silliness, with a good dose of bad computer generated special effects thrown in. There is not one particular moment that sets it off, but rather a steady downhill slide, starting with a poorly realised flight crash scene, to a running of the bulls scene (with computer bulls), to the completely out of place touch of June becoming Roy’s saviour and getting him out of harm’s way at the end of the film. How such a professional secret agent in Miller could allow a clutzy woman like June follow him without being noticed in a crucial stage in the film, or how June could have the knowledge of getting Miller out of hospital and escaping the clutches of the intelligence agencies is beyond belief to the point of being laughable, despite being a punctuation mark for the way their relationship started. All of this may have been okay if Cruise and Diaz actually had any chemistry together but they do not. “Knight and Day” is ultimately stupid; yet another Hollywood film that takes a decent idea, or a riff on a decent idea, and turns it in to mass-produced popcorn to appeal to those with short attention spans.