Yes, “From Paris with Love,” the newest movie starring John Travolta is lacking when it comes to certain cinematic elements, but that argument could be made for almost every action-adventure film. Very few ever make an impact at the Academy Awards. The larger question is whether or not the movie has enough action, explosions, and adrenaline to keep fans of the genre satisfied, and “From Paris with Love” doesn’t fall short in these categories.
Travolta plays Charlie Wax, an unorthodox secret agent sporting a hideous Q-Tip haircut and enough testosterone to make a locker room full of football players green with envy. He’s flown into the French capital to team with James Reece (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a twenty-something US Ambassador aid just breaking into the business of American espionage.
The unlikely duo are paired with the intentions of breaking up a Chinese cocaine ring, only to have them stumble upon a Pakistani terrorist sect’s plans to wreak havoc on a G8 government summit. The acting leaves a lot to be desired for the most part.
Reece’s fiancée Caroline (played by Kasia Smutniak) may play a major role in the film, but she’s really nothing more than the token eye candy that’s expected in this type of movie. The strongest acting is that of the duo of Travolta and Rhys Meyers. The two characters are worlds apart, making for an action-adventure odd couple. They balance each other out quite well, with Reece’s sophisticated version of Felix Unger providing a much-needed contradiction to Wax’s Oscar Madison.
Saying Wax is an obscene character would be a brazen understatement. In between saving Paris from terrorists, he makes Reece walk around carrying a vase full of crack, hooks up with prostitutes, and throws an obscenity-laced tirade upon his arrival at a French airport over an energy drink. But it’s Travolta who has a surprisingly strong performance as the ever-brazen Wax. He certainly isn’t the first name that comes to mind when thinking about action stars, but Travolta’s performance made me believe he’s been in this line of work for many years.
The screenplay (Adi Hasak) and plot (Luc Besson) aren’t anything memorable. The movie’s filled with cheesy one-liners, and how we get a Pakistani terrorist sect out of a Chinese cocaine ring is beyond me. Luckily, we’re somewhat saved by the film’s director, Pierre Morel.
A rising star in the field, Morel also directed “Taken,” last year’s action flick starring Liam Neeson. The two films are very similar in the senses they both star a veteran actor who makes a seamless transition into the action hero role, and paint a picture that Paris is a very undesirable city once you wander five miles away from the Eifel Tower in any direction.
Morel’s work comes out strong in the action scenes that bombard the last two-thirds of the movie. One scene has Rhys-Meyers on his toes, avoiding raining bad guys, falling down a spiral staircase after being killed by Travolta. Another involving a car chase with Travolta and a terrorist on a busy Paris freeway ignites more thrills than any chase scene in “The Fast and the Furious” ever could. And the movie has plenty of explosions, enough to make even the pyromaniac film enthusiast satisfied.
One gripe with Morel is his obsession with slow-motion. It’s comes across superbly in an action movie if it’s used sparingly, but he uses it ad nauseum, to the point where I thought I was watching another “Matrix” sequel.
But the action scenes shine in “From Paris with Love,” and that alone will give moviegoers interested in this type of film the justification they need.
