06/06/10 - From Paris with Love

From Paris with Love (2010, 92 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt117T9034/

We follow up Edge of Darkness with From Paris with Love. This was from the same director as Taken (Pierre Morel) and I really loved that so I was thinking this would be a similarly fun movie, only without as good an acting job as Liam Neeson gave.

The film follows CIA agent James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) as he is given the task of handling fellow CIA agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta) who has come to thwart a terrorist attack. It turns out that Reece's fiancée Caroline (Kasia Smutniak) has a prominent role in this attack.

Wow. The magic of Taken sure wasn't present in this film and there were quite the number of reasons for that. But first, I'll note some of the positives. The main thing going right is Travolta as Wax. For the most part, he plays a cool guy and it's fun and that's what important. Wax is atypical of pretty much any other character of his abilities as he completely embodies the "shoot first, ask questions later" persona. Pros and cons come from this portrayal but the obvious pro is that Travolta sure looks like he has fun playing the role. But sadly, this is where it ends. And that also about wraps up the positives. It does amount to a lot though that Travolta creates a cool character.

Now for the negatives. The first was alluded to above on Wax. Wax isn't like a standard CIA agent guys. I'm fine with that. But where the film screws up is how his character meshes with Reece. There is absolutely zero chemistry that I felt here. Reece is built up as this chess playing guy and someone not used to his new role in the CIA. But once Wax is introduced and they begin interacting, there is no use of these skills really. Sure, Reece faces problems doing basic killing stuff since he's unfamiliar with it but this is just played up in such a standard way that it's just boring. This chemistry and abandonment of Reece's character hurt the movie a lot.

Next, the plot just isn't that interesting. Recall Taken which had a simple plot but was still really engaging. It never got too complicated or anything and had excellent pacing. Here, though, the movie had terrible pacing and just didn't seem to be going anywhere important. Sadly, even the action scenes were boring. There's a few times where Wax jumps around and beats everyone up or stands still and shoots everyone. Really though they just aren't exciting. And the finale with Reece capping Caroline in the head is extremely lame.

Some small negatives that really bothered me also exist. First, Rhys Meyers is really weird looking in my opinion. He has a sleazy mustache. Travolta also sports some odd facial hair but it works for his character. There's no reason for Rhys Meyers as Reece to look like a goofball. The other weird thing this movie does is have everyone say people's names all the time. I can hang out with someone for four hours and never say their name. But for some reason in From Paris with Love, Reece pretty much calls Caroline by her name every single time he talks to her. This just creates awkward dialogue.

Overall, I gave this film a 3/10. It's just not exciting and the plot is boring. From Paris with Love was just a real letdown.