Rating of
2.5/4
Travolta & Meyers Romp In The City Of Lights
MovieMike - wrote on 12/22/11
‘From Paris With Love’ is John Travolta’s first outing since the 2009 tragic death of his son, Jett. His character, Charlie Wax, is a loose cannon-type CIA agent, but surprisingly, is not the central character in this movie. No, that honor goes to Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who plays James Reece, a diplomatic assistant who frequently does some ‘light lifting’ for the Agency. Travolta’s portrayal of Wax is every bit as good as his Chili Palmer (‘Get Shorty’, ‘Be Cool’), or Vincent Vega (‘Pulp Fiction’) characters, and his motions are what fuel the action in this action film. However, the audience is really drawn to Reece, a person with ambitions to graduate to serious spook-work – until he partners with Charlie Wax.
Helmed by freshman Director, Pierre Morel, ‘From Paris With Love’ has a familiar feel to it. That can possibly be explained by the presence of writer Luc Besson (‘Taken’, ‘Transporter’ series, ‘Leon: The Professional’), who also snags the Producer credit here. Cinematography provides the audience a great mini-tour of the fabled city (with the requisite Eiffel Tower shots included), and gives the fast paced story a mostly realistic look and feel.
Kasia Smutniak, a lovely Italian feature actress, gets a great American debut here as Reece’s love interest. The rest of the cast, while mostly unknown to American audiences, does an adequate job to fill out the rest of the players. However, I did cringe a bit at the use of stereotypical Asian street gangs and non-descript terrorist enemies. Even American diplomats get the rubber stamp treatment as clueless divas. None of this detracts all that much from the series of events and obstacles that play out in front of our two main characters.
For me, the main draw was watching Reece experience the type of excitement and mayhem that he so earnestly yearned for, but becoming more shocked and horrified at every turn. Wax’s quick wit and worldly wisdom both attract and repel Reece, but also serves as a quick education in how this CIA operative actually… well… operates! While FPWL is certainly not Oscar material, it hits most of the required marks for an action film without having to resort to ridiculous CGI animations. Although there are few funny lines sprinkled within the dialog, the film is played mostly in a serious light. While FPWL won’t please everyone, I at least felt like I got my money’s worth.
