From Paris With Love
Starring: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Melissa Mars
Director: Pierre Morel
Rating: 2/5
It seems that John Travolta is making a bit of a career out of playing slightly unhinged and odd ball characters. And From Paris With Love provides another one of the American star as he returns to the big screen in the Pierre Morel directed film.
A personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, James Reese (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 (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.
Sadly From Paris With Love is one of the those movies that crams all of the best bits into the trailer as it turns into one of those seen it all before movies.
Partners that don't want to be together but grow to like each other, terrorism, shooting up a city, great big gun fight set pieces, explosions there really was very little in the way of originality in Pierre Morel's latest offering.
And this comes as a major disappointment having really enjoyed his last movie Taken, which was so much better that expected.
Travolta is the movie's only saving grace as the off the wall, over the top Charlie Wax whose unorthodox methods and odd behaviour are an injection of much needed humour.
The gun set pieces, of which there are several, are impressive, look good and show off Wax at his nutty and trigger happy best.
Sadly Jonathan Rhys Meyers is not at his best in the film, wooden is the best way to describe his performance, which is a major shame.
In parts the pair do banter well together and the partnership does work to a certain extent, James is the brains and the caution while Wax doesn't think twice about blowing the brains out of just about everyone.
The twist is a nice one, if not original, but a little more back story as to what pushed them to make that decision would have been nice.
If you are expecting some slick action movie then I'm afraid that you are going to be very disappointed, Travolta really is the movie's only plus point.
While there's nothing particularly wrong with the plot we have just seen it all before and it's just disappointing.
Oh but they do manage to get a royale with cheese joke, which was greatly appreciated by this Pulp Fiction fan.
From Paris With Love is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in John Travolta