Opening Day: 25 February 2010

Synopsis:

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).

A trigger-happy, wisecracking, loose cannon who's been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack, Wax leads James on a white-knuckle shooting spree through the Parisian underworld that has James praying for his desk job. But when James discovers he's a target of the same crime ring they're trying to bust, he realizes there's no turning back...and that Wax himself might be his only hope for making it through the next forty-eight hours alive.

Movie Review:

If there’s one thing you can be sure, it’s that John Travolta’s FBI operative Charlie Wax isn’t going to get much love from Paris after this. For starters, upon entering the French capital, he 'educates' the French customs of the use of the word 'motherf**ker' after they stop him for bringing in cans of energy drink "Rattlesnake". Then just barely minutes after being released, he goes into a Chinese restaurant and proceeds to off about twenty people.

When he finally does have time to stop and think about the mayhem he has caused, Wax gives himself a pat on the back- he’s killed an average of one person each hour and he’s pretty damn proud of it. And oh, if you’ve seen the trailers, you would have known that Wax will go on to try to take out a car on the freeway using a rocket launcher in the middle of a high-speed chase. Yes, you can be sure the French won’t be too happy by the time Wax is done.

Of course, all that is only possible if you’re in a Luc Besson movie, and like most, if not all, Besson actioners, "From Paris with Love" invites you to indulge in that kind of guilty pleasure. Here is a no-holds-barred hyperkinetic action thriller that is both violent and vulgar, and it makes no excuses for being either. Indeed, you’d be amazed at the number of people Wax takes out by the end of the movie, or the number of profanities Wax utters like poetry from start to finish.

As played by John Travolta with a big bald dome and a wispy goatee, Wax is a trigger-happy, wisecracking loose cannon who shoots first and forgets about the questions later. "From Paris with Love" is from the director of last summer’s surprise hit "Taken" (also produced by Besson), and here Pierre Morel trades the sombreness of a very grave Liam Neeson for the smarminess of a very raucous John Travolta.

What a delectable role it truly is for Travolta- the actor in top form and clearly relishing the anti-hero character he plays. Travolta is such a magnetic presence whether spraying bullets or spewing wisecracks that you can’t help but take to him in a gleefully devilish way. Beside Travolta, Wax’s sidekick Reese (played by Johnathan Rhys-Meyers) is unfortunately too bland and boring to arouse much interest. Rhys-Meyers’ nondescript performance also doesn’t hold up compared to the pulsating Travolta who seems to absorb any minuscule of energy onscreen.

A lot of that energy is courtesy of the expert direction of Morel from his melange of bullet ballets and car chases. As he has proven with "District 13" and "Taken", Morel is a master at parlaying Besson’s simple yet efficient movie concepts into lean, mean action flicks that make the best out of their premise. "From Paris with Love" is no different, and kudos to Morel for demonstrating an excellent sense of pacing throughout the movie that never allows it to turn sluggish even for a moment.

That’s the beauty of this symphony of violence, orchestrated with much flair and precision both in its action and in its humour. It offers no excuses for being the guilty pleasure it is and instead, tries to be as indulgent as it can in this regard. All you have to do is sit back, buckle up and get ready for an adrenaline-charged ride that’s every bit as fun and exciting as its ridiculously over-the-top premise would suggest.

Movie Rating:



(Breathlessly exciting high-octane action thriller from start to end- complete with a gleefully insane performance by John Travolta)

Review by Gabriel Chong