I respect Roger Ebert's movie reviews. He's a sage with all that seasoned perspective. Consider his thoughts about the latest romantic action comedy, Knight and Day, starring Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise.
Ebert gives it a 3 stars out of 4 but has some reservations:
- "Have summer audiences been so hammered down by special effects that they require noise and fragmented visuals to hold their interest? Is it still possible to delight in a story unfolding with charm and wit?
- The wonder is that Cruise and Diaz are effective enough in their roles that they're not overwhelmed by all the commotion surrounding them.
- They never seriously discuss their situation. They spend half the movie in dire danger. Thousands of bullets miss them. By motorcycle, car, train, airplane and parachute, they survive anything.
- So I applaud the movie, and I observe that Diaz has one of the most winning grins in the movies. Basically, what I wanted was more of it. Some of that Cary Grant dialogue. More flirtation. More of a feeling the characters, not the production, were the foreground. More of the stars because movie stars really do make a difference. I insist on it."
Ebert's review encourages one to think about the great movies one has seen where the characters are at the forefront with wonderful scripts. And, we may lament that too many modern movies confuse special effects and frenetic editing with movie magic.
