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As The Summer of Our Cinematic Discontent continued, the Big Daddy and I journeyed onward towards the July 4th Holiday Weekend. Historically, this weekend in movie-going features some of the most expensive and ballyhooed tentpole fare the major movie studios will offer up to summer audiences. And while the quality of these films is more than often outweighed by the breadth (and loudness) of the marketing behind them, harmless, entertaining fun can be found. For every Spider-Man 2 there is a Transformers 2 and for every Men in Black there is a Wild Wild West.

We went to see Knight & Day the Friday after it opened. Had we gone to see it about ten years ago it may have been just fine. As it was and when it was, however, it was only fair-to-middling. Starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, this movie possesses just about every element necessary for fun, frothy escapist summer fare. Comedy, romance, a mysterious, handsome spy with almost inhuman capabilities, a gorgeous, sexy heroine in over her head and in the middle of the adventure of her life. Exotic locations, wild chase scenes involving a Ducati and hungry bulls thundering through the streets of Cadiz. Murderous strangers on trains, Spanish arms dealers, bikinis – the list goes on and on. Every penny spent on the production of this film is up on the screen, but for whatever reason – and through no fault whatsoever of the leads – it’s all just…meh.

Part of the reason may be because we’ve seen this movie done before and in a fresher, more electric way. The romantic adventure comedy is one of my favorite filmic sub-genres. Nothing is more enjoyable than seeing an uncertain yet puckish woman coming into her own mentally, spiritually and sexually as a result of being chased around the globe by super-spies and deranged assassins. The thrill of watching a heroine survive yet another impossible challenge in the face of death as she becomes ever more aware of her worth, intelligence and strength – I’m all over that like a pack of Teamsters at the Golden Corral buffet.

The problem may lie in the writing of Diaz’s character, June. She may just be too infantile to be believable or to fully root for. It’s a disturbing trend in lighter-hearted studio films these days – the women are often just idiots. See any number of movies which have come out recently and are usually about nothing more than a smart woman going insane over someone’s wedding, or anything starring Katherine Heigl. Perhaps if June had more steely determination and was about something more than “I restore classic cars - end of story”, maybe the movie would have come off as more than the red-headed stepchild of Romancing the Stone and True Lies and the second cousin twice removed of North by Northwest.

As stated before, I don’t think the fault lies with either Diaz or Cruise. They are both pretty winning in their roles and they both bring the entire weapons cache of their Movie Star arsenals to their portrayals. Ridiculously attractive, with a true sense of familiarity and ease about each other, the former co-stars of Vanilla Sky both fully bring the physical, the cute and the funny, but in the end it’s still somewhat of a losing cause.

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