Review of From Paris with Love (2010) by Martin D — 07 Aug 2011

"From Paris with Love" is an entertaining action movie that never gets boring. Unfortunately, the intelligence shines by its absence and the Travolta character becomes more of caricature. But as entertainment for the moment it works fine.

Frenchman Pierre Morel has played his career as a cinematographer, but after the successful French scifi-action film "District 13" ("Banlieue 13") and even more successful thriller "Taken", both by Luc Besson ("Leon") as a script writer, he has made a name as a director too.

Even in "From Paris with Love" has Morel worked with Besson, but the level reaches not quite up to expectations. Maybe it's because Besson not have the script here, but "only" been on the story. I think in all cases it is especially sensitive of the replicas and the characters that are missing in the latest work.

James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is working in Paris as a secret agent, but do not think he is responsible enough information. All that changes when he gets Charlie Wax (John Travolta) as partners. Wax methods are anything but subtle, and it does not take many hours before Reece white shirt collar is crumpled and splashed with blood.

The arrangement with two completely opposite personalities who are trying to solve a case together is classic. Most reminiscent of the constellation of the "Lethal Weapon" where Danny Glover is absolutely convinced that Mel Gibson's insane way to get a result will get him killed.

Unfortunately, Travolta's role in interpretation of the trigger-happy and psychotic police who still gets the job done, a little too far. It reaches both the level of parody and distasteful when he is without an ounce of charm pouring out of the racist attacks on French grodätare and Pakistani terrorists, turn on the prostitutes on jobbtid, forcing the new partner to sniff cocaine. Yes, I understand him to be a tough guy, but it must still be made with any kind of gleam in his eye.

The case of the solution or the problem clears, depending on how you look at it, assume constantly new forms, but is really not important right. It feels as if "From Paris with Love" could have been about just about anything. The important thing is the contradictions between Wax and Reece, and that there is an opportunity for a lot of action.

And it does. Travolta really get the opportunity to showcase the action-qualities he has when he gets into fights, defuses bombs, shoot headlong and killing bad guys left and right. Often it is done right nicely choreographed. That it is far from always justified is less important. I mean, why take your automatic weapons and shoot the three terrorists who are escaping out of a building when there is so much easier to calculate exactly how many seconds it takes for them to run down and instead throw a bomb in their heads?

But these kinds of small details, one should not think about whether you should enjoy "From Paris with Love". You simply have to accept some degree of lack of logic to get the desired action sequences. In my case it works fine. I can not keep me up to a significant degree of credibility problem, but let me thrown around between the intense scenes.

And when the turnaround in the story comes to getting the whole new life again. For although it did not come as a surprise, so is it still almost shocking suddenly once it happens.

"From Paris with Love" works well as an entertaining action without much brains. But those who think that just because you liked "Taken" will be like even this may have been a disappointment in front of him. Sure, each contain a great deal of action, but for me it's two completely different types of movies. The first is the constant gravity, and you know what the goal is all the time, while the latter tries to incorporate humor and it takes time before you get wise to what the case is about.

There is no doubt about that "Taken" is the stronger of the two, but if you take "From Paris with Love" for what it is you can easily have fun for now.