Desde París con amor

Please be gentle, this is my first review.

First of all, Travolta is back! Since Pulp Fiction, where I really enjoyed his play, I always had the feeling that his acting was about skin-deep. What happened in this movie is an invention of a new old-school action hero which would have stood in one line with Willis, Stallone and Schwarzenegger without trying to be one of them. He's powerful, funny and seriously "true" without being ridiculously over-torqued like in Pelham 123 or Face-off.

Basically you need to enjoy old-school action movies to like this. The storyline must have come to the writers mind while brushing his teeth in the morning - It's solid, well grounded, but a little bit too compressed for a 90 min movie. Concerning the speed of this movie, the camera work is fantastic and the cut allows to enjoy the action at it's fullest. (In the last years there were many movies of this type with a cut/camera like a flip-book with missing pages, which made them completely unenjoyable.)

I would like to see more movies of this type in the next years. It's not pretending to be more than what it is: Solid "hero-action" with a proper sidekick.

A personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) has an enviable life in Paris and a beautiful French girlfriend, but his real passion is his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA. All James wants is to become a bona fide agent and see some real action. So when he's offered his first senior-level assignment, he can't believe his good luck - until he meets his new partner, special agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta)...

From Paris With Love is an unrealistic, over-the-top action flick. The plot is extremely silly, the story quite implausible, and the action scenes are absolutely ridiculous not to mention that you can see the twist coming from the beginning.Both Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers deliver good performances and they had good chemistry but at the same time their characters are paper-thin and were poorly written. Something that appalled me was the editing of the film and the transition between some scenes. I thought it was rather choppy and not something I would expect from experienced directors like Luc Besson and Pierre Morel. The film does have its moments and can be quite entertaining at times but if you're expecting something along the lines of Morel's last film, Taken, which was a well thought and realistic action-thriller then you're gonna be extremely disappointed. Recommended for action junkies only.

6/10

Would I watch this movie again? Yes I was not sure what to expect from this movie. But, I decided to watch it. And long and behold, its one which you should not miss if you are into guy movies like me. Lots of action, good lines, fast pace and a bit of a story. What else can a guy ask for? More hot chick scene? Action: Travolta has all the moves and faster then all the bullets which blast by him. He kicks butt and then some.

Speech and dialogue: There were one liners, yes. But the fast talking Travolta was entertaining and was very complimentary with his co-stars Chemistry and pace: The characters were good with each other. Meyers and wife was good. Made me believe. The action and fast talking move the movie along. From building to building, it was good to have different locations to kill bad guys.

Story and Plot: Its all there in the synopsis, where a guy wants more action and he got it.

Hotties and love scenes: just one simple scene

Ending: Ending is good as I feel like it completed the movie. No real loose ends. (I hate movies where the ending leaves you dissatisfied)

Jonathan Rhys Meyers works for the American Embassy in Paris and is used to performing small surveillance/spying jobs. Yet he yearns to be a member of the big league: what is referred to as 'The Club' – a buzzword for elite government agents. He gets his chance when he has to go to the airport to collect a loud, foul-mouthed colleague – John Travolta in a totally unhinged performance – who's arrived in town on a drugs bust, but later uncovers a terrorist plot. Cue: lots of witty banter, beatings and shootings galore as a reluctant Rhys Meyer's gets in over his head with his apparently unstable partner.

As you can tell from the above short outline, if you're watching this thinking you're in for a soppy love story, you'd better brace yourself for the truth: this is a violent, foul-mouthed, headache inducing shoot 'em up. It's a simple action story where – stop me if you haven't heard this before – two mismatched agents argue and bitch the entire time while spouting witty dialog at each other. But don't let that put you off: this is a deliriously entertaining buddy movie in the mold of Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and a host of others, but with an added European flavor which serves to make it stand out from the crowd.

For a flashy, big budget movie, it's refreshingly old school. There's no dizzy 3D on display and whatever CG is present is so subtle as to be almost undetectable. In fact this movie could have been made in the late 80s/early 90s. What we get in their place is a movie that relies on the characters talking to each other rather than relying on big effects. This is like a breath of fresh air. Travolta and Rhys Meyers work really well together and are believable as the two mismatched agents: one a nervy and green rookie with no experience, the other a seasoned pro that tends to shoot first and then ask his questions. The script is very witty and there's lots of entertaining back and forth banter between the two of them.

Travolta is his typically over-the-top self in the movie - but in a good way. At times he's laugh-out-loud hilarious and puts in an energetic comedic performance. He's seems to relish the outrageous situations and the witty dialog. He runs through his familiar back catalog of high pitched 'Yeahs' and whoops and an assortment of swear words that wouldn't have been out of place in Pulp Fiction. In fact the aforementioned movie is even referenced in a throwaway line where he mentions that his favorite food is a 'Royale with cheese'. You know that an actor's recent output hasn't been of the highest quality when he has to remind us of former glories not just once, but twice: did he really think we didn't catch it the first time? Rhys Meyers is good as his straight faced, though bewildered sidekick and underplays his role to good effect. Admittedly, he has no other choice since he's playing to such a powerhouse role as Travolta's. It's clearly Travolta's show and he loves every minute of it. And why wouldn't he? This gives him the chance to play one of his most colorful characters in years.

There are lots of really good classic scenes in this movie, perhaps too many to mention: the airport interrogation room, a scene set in a Chinese restaurant and an encounter with street punks, to name just a few. The movie is brimming with entertaining moments and moves along at a breathless pace, effortlessly sweeping us in with it. So much so, in fact, that we fail to notice how… slightly… confusing… it… is… It's fair to say that this movie doesn't have your standard A-B-C plotting. Story-wise, it is - as they say - all over the shop. Still, when you're having this much fun that doesn't really matter.

It's a shame they couldn't have come up with a better title for the movie because the one they chose doesn't do it justice. While it works in the context of its Parisian setting, it may put people off. The unacquainted could unwittingly pass it up, thinking it's something else entirely. And that would be a shame because this is a highly entertaining and re-watchable gem of a movie with rapid-fire dialog and lots of preposterous situations thrown in for good measure. It's also got its share of surprises and twists. If you like witty buddy cop movies, then go out and see this, if for nothing else, then just to see Travolta back on top of his game in loud, dynamic form.

While there is no shortage of people jockeying for position in line to condemn Luc Besson, there's no denying the entertainment of his action movies. Over the past ten years the man has given us Kiss of the Dragon, the Transporter franchise, and Taken. These movies will never be up for any major awards but they are still worth the money and time for action fans.

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers plays James Reese, the personal assistant to the American Ambassador in France who does odd, low-level covert jobs on the side. He longs for the big leagues, and gets his wish (to the extreme) when he's suddenly partnered with the flamboyant Charlie Wax (an OTT John Travolta, who really seems to be enjoying himself). Wax has a mission in Paris, but he's keeping the full details from Reese, gradually letting him further into the tangle of twists as the elaborate story unfolds. Racking up a body count of more than one an hour in the process.

The Travolta/Meyers double-act mostly pays off, but, like Reese, the audience is left out in the cold for the duration. Meyers doesn't do much but stand aside while Travolta rampages through posses of bad guys. I know he's the 'everyman' we can identify with, thus giving us a smoother insight into the world of espionage, but if he was just given a tiny bit more to do than stand around wide-eyed and frightened the film would have gotten a higher rating from me.

As 90-minute fluff we're talking serious entertainment here. If you're wanting more profound film-making look elsewhere (not that Besson is incapable of this either). From Paris With Love doesn't rewrite the rules of the action or spy genre, but it does play every expected note loudly and maniacally. Exactly how many films have a bald, goatee-sporting John Travolta hanging out of a car window talking on the phone in one hand with a giant mofo rocket-launcher in the other?