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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Knight and Day (Blu-ray) (2010)

Knight and Day (Blu-ray) (2010)

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Released 24-Nov-2010

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Comedy Featurette-Making Of-2
Alternative Version
Music Video
Short Film-2
Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2010
Running Time 109:29
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Version Select Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By James Mangold
Studio
Distributor

Twentieth Century Fox
Starring Tom Cruise
Cameron Diaz
Peter Sarsgaard
Jordi Mollà
Viola Davis
Paul Dano
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music John Powell


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
French dts 5.1
English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired
French
Danish
Finnish
Dutch
Norwegian
Swedish
Russian
Croatian
Arabic
Greek
Chinese
Icelandic
Hebrew
Portuguese
Romanian
Serbian
Slovenian
Chinese
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     Tom Cruise is undoubtedly one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood currently and probably one of the biggest stars ever. The constant surprise to many seems to be that he is also a very good actor despite his personal eccentricities. His latest movie to be released, Knight and Day, is his least successful major film for more than 10 years certainly in terms of US Box Office. Globally, this film actually did quite well taking over US$250M. My view is that this is quite a good and entertaining film when taken for what it is; a comedic action adventure. It is not meant to be realistic or sensible or important, just entertaining.

     The story involves June Havens (Cameron Diaz) who has been visiting Wichita to buy parts for a car her father left her when he died. She is at the airport trying to get on an earlier flight when she is bumped into twice by a man who is later revealed to be a secret agent on the run. His name is Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) and he has in his possession something which the CIA and arms dealers are after. According to his previous boss, he has murdered a number of people and stolen the item. June ends up on a flight with just him and a variety of other agents who all attempt to kill him. What follows is a madcap race around the globe trying to avoid the bad guys. There is no real depth to the plot so a detailed explanation is unnecessary as the story is just a way to roll out the comedy and the well put together action scenes.

     The film uses an interesting device which is to only show the action from the perspective of June. If Roy is not with her or near her we do not see what he is doing. When they are together he often knocks her out with drugs or something else to ensure he can move quickly and without having to explain everything to her. This device seems to have brought a lot of criticism to the film as it does not explain how they get from a remote island in the tropics to Austria, for example. It didn't bother me and I thought it worked considering the style of the film, a madcap chase, and added an extra twist to proceedings.

     This film works due to a few factors, however the most important one is a marvellous performance and characterisation by Tom Cruise. He is very believable and it is obvious that he does most of the stunts. Others include his chemistry with Cameron Diaz, the well put together action scenes and some funny dialogue. There is also some quality music by John Powell which is well suited to the movie.

     This disc contains two versions of the film, the theatrical (109:29) and the extended (117:07) which includes some extra dialogue and a slightly different opening. The main attraction is an extra scene involving a rampaging bull, an alley and Tom and Cameron on a motorbike. It is nice to have both versions included.

     If you are in the mood to be entertained and want some laughs and excitement, this movie is certainly worth your time. Recommended.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     The video quality is excellent. The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is encoded using the AVC codec.

     The picture was very clear and sharp throughout with excellent definition in the action scenes. Shadow detail was excellent. The colour was excellent, very vibrant with the colours jumping off the screen. Flesh tones were very natural. There are no artefacts to be seen.

     There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired, plus many other European and Asian languages which were clear and easy to read.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio quality is also excellent but not quite up with the best I have heard on Blu-ray.

     This Blu-ray contains three audio options, an English DTS HD-MA 5.1 soundtrack, a French DTS 5.1 soundtrack and an English Audio Descriptive Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The HD-MA lead track is fantastic featuring a very full and vigorous soundstage. Dialogue was usually clear and easy to understand although some lines were somewhat muffled and I found the subtitles useful.

     The quality music by John Powell sounds great and is perky, playful and exciting depending on the need.

     The surround speakers were used really well throughout for atmospherics, crowd scenes, action scenes, car chases and the plane crash. The subwoofer was also used really well throughout during gunfights, explosions, the plane crash and much more.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

     Decent but nothing special

Menu

     The menu is very functional.

Wilder Knights & Crazier Days (12:30)

     Quite interesting featurette about how the stunts and action scenes were done. Worth a look

Boston Days & Spanish Knights (8:10)

     Featurette about the various locations used during the film including Jamaica, Austria & Spain.

Knight & 'Someday' (9:08)

     Tom Cruise goes and meets his friends, The Black Eyed Peas, as they premiere the song they wrote for the credits of the film. A three minute idea in a nine minute extra.

Viral Video - Soccer (1:10)

     Tom & Cameron playing soccer on set.

Viral Video - Kick (1:22)

     Cameron practicing karate kicks with Tom.

Theatrical Trailer (2:26)

     Fun.

Extended Version

     As mentioned above this disc includes both the theatrical and extended versions of the film.

Live Extras

     This menu item allows access to internet based extras however I was unable to get it working despite my Blu-ray player being internet enabled. The error message I received said that it required a broadband internet connection and that I had that option disabled. Perhaps it wants to be directly connected rather than wirelessly connected. I would guess this option would give access to the same extras as the Region A version.

Other Trailers

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The US version of this movie seems only to provide the theatrical version but does have a couple more extras. The UK edition seems to be the same as ours. To me this makes the local version the best available. Neither of the others have been released or reviewed yet so I cannot definitely confirm their contents.

Summary

     A fun and exciting comic action adventure. The video quality is excellent. The audio quality is excellent. The disc has a decent collection of extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Review Equipment
DVDSONY BDP-S760 Blu-ray, using HDMI output
DisplayLG Scarlet 42LG61YD 106cm Full HD LCD. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderBuilt into BD player. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-511
SpeakersMonitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Sony SAW2500M Subwoofer

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