A beautiful movie in terms of cinematography, the shots shown in between the explosions and gunfire are absolutely gorgeous but sadly the rest of this movie falls short of setting the bar on anything.  If there was a cookie cutter method to creating action movie, From Paris With Love is the result of it. All it seems to take is a shallow story, a super-human badass , a semi-normal sidekick in tow and a few hot chicks to deliver the sex. Mix in a host of bad guys with horrible aim and make sure lots of things blow up to keep the audience’s attention. There is absolutely nothing unique, different or interesting in this movie outside of John Travolta playing the same character he did in Pelham 123, complete with the liberal use of the word motherfucker.

It is hard to imagine that this movie was penned by Luc Besson, a man responsible for such gems as Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita and The Transporter. That is to say the story aspect of things was a bit light, too light for my tastes, although John Travolta delivers quite a performance as the maniacal, super agent Charlie Wax. For the race chasers you will be delighted to have more fodder for your blogs as Mr. Wax utilizes terms such as “rag head”, “wax on and wax off” and easily knocks off terrorists and drug dealers (all people of color) in the role as the ultimate white knight. Take that as you will, I was against your race baiting during Avatar, but now you have a movie that warrants your soap box tirades about Hollywood and racism. For people looking for non-thinking, turn your brain off and enjoy the movie action, this thing delivers in a major way.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as James Reece the partner to Charlie Wax is probably the worst thing about From Paris with Love. This isn’t to say that Jonathan’s acting was distractingly bad or that his character was annoying. It just felt like a bad match, it felt as if the James Reece character was meant to be a bit more dynamic and Meyers seemed to go through the motions quietly, which is quite noticeable since the entire first half of the movie has him as the focus. Reece’s girlfriend Caroline (Kasia Smutniak) is the standard hot, foreign woman that’s a mainstay for action and the chemistry between the two was semi-decent. After seeing the movie, I wished that Wax was introduced earlier since he is the action in From Paris with Love.

If you want to see some fresh but non-unique action with “terrorists” being killed in many different ways, then you need to go out and see From Paris with Love. If you are a John Travolta fan and wish to see your boy do really cool action scenes then this is one for you also. For the movie-goer who wishes to see an intelligent movie or unique take on action then stay far away from this one as possible. While not one of Luc Besson’s greatest takes, it still has its moments and turned out to be quite entertaining nonetheless.

  STAR RATING: (6/10)   ★★★★★★★★★★