Knight and Day difference

I thought today I would look at the differences between a successful movie and one that missed the mark. This month we've had two action-comedy releases that dealt with a secret agent's romance with a "normal" girl and how his double life caused mayhem for the both of them. One was the flatline Katherine Heigl-Ashton Kutcher trainwreck "Killers," the other the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz film "Knight and Day."

Both films have similar plots and aimed to accomplish similar things through the film, but only one really works. And there is a simple reason for that — story, character, and execution.

First to story: There were huge plot holes in "Killers" and, because other elements didn't work, it really showed. It was easy to figure out where the story was going, but impossible to figure out why. It was also tough to care about where it was going or why it was going there.

"Knight and Day" also boasts a somewhat predictable story. However, the leaps in logic don't feel as big because of the way it's put together. There is also a light-hearted comedic aspect to the film that doesn't come through well in "Killers."

Second is character, particularly the central female protagonist. Both Cruise and Kutcher do a good job in the male protagonist role. Cruise is a more polished star that brings a lot of fun energy to a performance, but Kutcher made the most of his role in "Killers" as well. It's the female character/performance that is most different.

Heigl is a decent actress, but recently she's seems content to saddle herself with ridiculous parts, playing type "A" women that have few redeeming personality qualities. It's hard to make a character like that endearing. Diaz' character is much more relatable, and Diaz gives a warm, relatable performance. That allows her to have an easy rapport with Cruise that makes the dynamics of the relationship work. Heigl has no rapport with Kutcher and it's hard to get worked up into caring about her character.

The final element is execution. The "Killers" was meant to have some comedic moments, but it didn't really work. Because of a weak story and weak characters, it fell too cliche. There are cliches in the plot and execution of "Knight and Day," but because the story is better drawn and the characters and performances are more vibrant, you can more easily look past that.

Too often when looking at these films the tendency is to put all the blame on the story when a film doesn't work. While the story is plagued with problems in "Killers," it is only one of the reasons the film flatlines. Story alone doesn't save "Knight and Day" either, it's a combination of how the story is presented and how its executed that really make all the difference.