It’s hard for me to believe that Tom Cruise could “have” or “not have” chemistry with anybody because he’s such an overwhelming force of energy its hard for another person to share space with him and not be completely flattened.

Anyway, any appeal that Knight and Day has surrounds the energy and charisma of Cruise and of Cameron Diaz. The rest of the movie is full of obtuse action sequences and gaps in plot where characters disappear from one location and appear in others. It’s not that it’s bad. It’s that it’s SO bad.

I wouldn’t waste my time writing more but something about Knight and Day bothered me. The relationship between Cruise and Diaz is supposed to be cute because he is a professional spy and is really good and shooting people and evading assassins while she is a typical woman who wonders about how pretty she looks and whether he wants to have dinner with her. But she isn’t a typical woman because she knows about cars and stuff. But she is because there’s a scene where they’re literally getting shot at by dozens of assassins and she tries to get his attention by talking about sex and complains because she doesn’t think he’s happy to see her.

I get that you’re supposed to chuckle at these scenes and elbow your buddy and say “women, am I right?” in an exasperated tone. But I was a little offended by the relationship, especially because the first half of the movie is about Cruise kidnapping and drugging Diaz over and over again but don’t worry because he’s a really good spy and he knows what’s best for her.

I don’t mind that bad movies exist but it does bother me that in 2010 Hollywood can produce a movie with this type of relationship exists and inexplicably expect you to root for the man involved.

By the way this movie passes the Bechdel test but that’s neither here nor there.

Next: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol