From Paris with Love (***)
Directed by: Pierre MorelStarring: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak, Richard Durden
Seen: February 27th 2010
*** Out of ****
From Paris with Love starts with approximately 15 to 20 minutes of exposition. James Reece (Rhys Meyers) is set up as a highly competent and very intelligent aide to the American Ambassador to France (Durden), who in his sparse spare time also performs small tasks for the CIA (or some such government faction). He is eager to be afforded bigger opportunities in the spying game, and gets just that when he is teamed up with Charlie Wax (Travolta), an over-the-top, loud-mouthed American secret agent who’s not so secret in his own very gregarious way. Wax is a nightmare, but he gets things done. The difference here is that the government does not try to reign him in, but rather affords him pretty extensive free will, as long as he delivers, which he does.
Reece is not only a stand-up guy at work, he also has a great girlfriend, Caroline (Smutniak), who actually asks him to marry her. There is the almost obligatory scene where Wax gets Reece in trouble with his girlfriend, and if it seems that she handles it pretty well for the circumstances, you don’t get time to think about it as the movie plummets into its next action scene. Caroline is not the usual figure-head movie girlfriend who only shows up for eye candy; she is much more.
From Paris with Love is an action movie of reckless abandon, purely in it for the action, and not much else. Like certain art films are about the way they portray sunsets (and work very well for it), From Paris with Love is obsessed with its own pace and action infusion. And you know what? It works. It is pulse-pounding ridiculous fun. Pierre Morel has delivered a movie similar to his previous effort, Taken, starring Liam Neeson. From Paris with Love is just a more; “grownup” movie than Taken. Not in the way you’d expect though; From Paris with Love is simply more violent and more bad-assed. Where Taken was almost a family action movie (though still brutal), From Paris with Love is not for children. It is awesome fun though – answering a question about how many Chinese villains are still left on a shooting rampage, Travolta’s character replies with this gem: “Last census? About a billion…”
If you’re in the mood for fun relaxation, go see From Paris with Love, the movie is fast-paced and adrenaline-laced. The script services the action, but not in a bad way. This movie is worth the 2 hours it takes, and I think for me it has a distinct chance of taking those 2 hours from me again and again.
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