From Paris With Love (Review)

  

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Written by Chris YogerstcloseAuthor: chrisyogerst Name: Chris Yogerst
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About: Editor for Parcbench and NewsReal Blog as well as contributor to Big Hollywood.See Authors Posts (88) on February 5, 2010

Action films are usually hit and miss with most people. They can be great (like The Hurt Locker) or painful to watch (like Transformers 2:Revenge of the Fallen).

The genre has always had a split audience and too many films fall right in the middle. We know that not all action films are created equal and some filmmakers work great together on certain films and not on others. Evidence: Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer making The Rock and going on to poison us with Armageddon.

Two more regular collaborators are Luc Besson (writer) and Pierre Morel (director) who created last year’s action thriller Taken (critics were split, I enjoyed it). Their follow up film is the latest John Travolta vehicle, From Paris With Love. Many people wonder why Besson hasn’t gotten back to the level of filmmaking that solidified his name with The Professional (which he both wrote and directed). His latest film leaves us still asking questions.

The film focuses on French US embassy employee James Reece (Johnathan Rhys Meyers) who has much larger aspirations to be a CIA special operative. Reece has two jobs, during the day he is an aide to the US ambassador in France and by night he is a low level CIA operative all while balancing a life with his lovely girlfriend, Caroline (Kasia Smutniak).

Eventually the call comes in from the CIA for a serious task above the usual swapping of license plates and moving cars. Reece has never seen a combat situation and quickly finds himself in many bullet-ridden action sequences after he is asked to pick up special agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta), who was flagged going through customs. This operation is a tryout for Reece and if successful it means promotion to field operative.

What follows is a combination of anti-drug dealing and anti-terrorist driven action sequences. The problem is that the links between the two are weak, making the connection between scenes brittle at best. The film jumps from one shootout to the next lacking proper explanation as to why bodies are flying left and right. It is obvious who the good and bad guys are; the problem is the constantly changing motivations of the action. Of course, films of this type are known for having crappy stories and high body counts but can’t we hope for one to go further than the status quo?

The violence, while it attempted to wow us with its style, remained lackluster. It was clear that the filmmakers were trying to live up to the usual artistic gunfights we are used to from European filmmakers. Unfortunately the flaws are twofold. First, the story was flat through the first part of the film, which is a consistent problem in this genre. Having a weak story or buildup makes for the action sequences to lack audience engagement. The best action always occurs when the viewer has some interest in the characters on the screen.

The second problem was John Travolta. He was the last person that should have been cast in the role of a trigger-happy special agent with a bald head and goatee. This choice resulted in a laughable and awkward action hero. It was hard to believe that he was doing these wild maneuvers in the film.

Travolta is old and overweight; he could not jump onto a fireman’s pole and catch himself with his leg only to slide down and kill a bunch of guys. He has had good action films, but Face Off was a long time ago now. Maybe the filmmakers had too much confidence in an older action hero because it worked so well for Liam Neeson in their last film. Such was not the case here.

On the other hand, Johathan Rhys Meyers did a decent job playing Reece, who was the typical everyman who winds up in situations he is not familiar with. This is the character the audience is meant to relate too and there is enough in his life (love, drive to succeed) for us to potentially do so. This saves the film in many scenes after Travolta voices stupid references to other films that pushes them into the realm of annoying.

I kid you not, in one scene after killing a bunch of guys Charlie Wax says “wax on…wax off.” It is lines like this that destroy action films. The one-liners were fun from Sly and Arnie twenty years ago (kind of). Such dialogue now is a horrible attempt at campy or self-reflexive humor. They even allowed Travolta to do a desperate send up to Pulp Fiction that was used in the trailer and should have been cut for the film.

Last year many of us were wondering if Besson and Morel were getting back on the right track. Unfortunately, From Paris With Love is a step in the wrong direction. If you were expecting another Taken, you will instead get a less stylish Shoot Em’ Up.

Film grade: C-

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