Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) bumps into June Havens (Cameron Diaz) in the airport.  After spending a quiet flight with Roy, where he kills everyone on board and has to make an emergency landing in the middle of a farm, soon enough June figures out that she needs to get as far as possible from this man.  Unfortunately with some government agency trying to kill her she ends up forced to have to stick around with Roy.  We end up on this spy filled plot filled with espionage and a lot of sedatives.

James Mangold returns to the director’s chair after three years of sitting on the sidelines.  His last film was 2007’s 3:10 to Yuma which I really adored.  Here he employs all of his usually action filled love on screen with a slight twist.  Instead of the usual story where we’re busy following the spy around we’re really focused more on the regular girl that’s end up dragged along for the ride.  Why this makes for a weaker film than the cliché version of this story is that since June can’t handle what’s going on around her usually half way through the action scene June is knocked out (via some drug or Vulcan death grip) and that’s where it ends for us.  While I would like to give Mangold and Patrick O’Neill (the screenwriter) credit for trying to make this story that’s pretty standard Hollywood fodder into something new and fresh, at the same time I found myself just wanting the regular everyday movie that I would usually get.  I guess this is one of those times where you say “thanks, but no thanks”.

Tom Cruise did what he does best; he shot at the bad guys and smiled at the camera while charming the hell out of the cynical and confused Cameron Diaz.  She spent the first half of the film trying to run away from Cruise’s character that she at the same time felt drawn to.  However, when she finally realises which side is actually the good side she spends the rest of the film running towards Cruise and his ridiculously acrobatic antics.

At the same time there are a few good supporting performances to be had in this film.  Director George (Viola Davis) who’s becoming one of the go to ladies of Hollywood whenever you need a minor role filled with brilliance.  Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard) is Roy’s former partner who’s out looking for him and in turn first face we see when Roy pops up.  However my favourite minor character has to go to Simon Feck (Paul Dano), who’s a brilliant scientist who’s invented this new battery (which is where this whole story really starts) that everyone wants to get their hands on.  Dano adds a sense of weirdness to this character that’s already awkward enough.  Something about his love of trains just makes me laugh.

In the end it’s an okay film, but a less than okay action movie.  It works best when Diaz and Cruise are having some fun together on screen.  Whether it is Diaz being completely inept and almost getting herself killed or Cruise seeming so over the top that we just can’t believe he really is the good guy.

IMDB says 6.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 53%

I say 6.0/10