Sunday, February 7, 2010
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Sunday, February 7, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
From Paris With Love
Blood, Guns, Bullets And Eiffels Of Travolta
John Travolta as Charlie Wax in Pierre Morel's "From Paris With Love".
Lionsgate
By Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
Sunday, February 7, 2010
One year and one week ago Pierre Morel's "Taken"
exploded onto American silver screens as a snappy, direct and blunt action drama
that took few prisoners. Mr. Morel again gets straight to the point in his
latest film, "From Paris With Love", which plays mostly as an exercise in pulpy
gun-toting yahoo-ism.
The film makes no bones about being a "Training Day" replica, minus the serious
acting that resulted in Oscar gold for Antoine Fuqua's 2001 film. John
Travolta fires up the same kind of hyper-wired extravaganza in "Paris" that
Nicolas Cage did in last year's "Bad Lieutenant: Port
Of Call New Orleans".
Mr. Travolta, last seen in 2009's worst film "Old
Dogs" and the sub-par "The Taking Of Pelham 123"
plays Charlie Wax, a break-the-rules-to-get-the-justice kind of American
government operative, trying to prevent a terrorist attack during an African
AIDS Prevention Conference. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers plays James Reese, a
green CIA operative who shepherds Wax around Paris. There will be lots of
bumps, bullets, bruises, blood and bodies before all is said and done.
Many of those bodies will be dead, others will be alive and kicking.
"From Paris With Love" is nothing at all without Mr. Morel's sharp-eyed talents
for directing. He has an innate talent for staging and throwing everything
on the table, no-holds barred. Yet this new film suffers from a lack of
real plot -- instead, it is a vehicle hewn solely from (and designed strictly to
showcase) Mr. Travolta's histrionics, many of which are downright hilarious.
The theatrics however, are an attempted diversion from a screenplay (by Adi
Hasak, based on Luc Besson's story) yielding few fresh ideas. Even the
most hardened action junkies in the audience won't be fooled by Mr. Morel's
ambitions or the film's intentions.
While Mr. Travolta chews through the scenery faster than a sugar-starved fiend
chews through a pack of Juicy Fruit, Mr. Rhys-Meyers looks as if he is reading
Mr. Hasak's script for the first time. Mr. Hasak probably won't have
appreciated that, for the actor can be embarrassing to watch at times here.
There's little urgency in his work, even in scenes where the circumstances are
exigent. It's one of Mr. Rhys-Meyers' poorest performances, but is that
saying much when that performance comes in an action film?
Boisterous, bombastic and brittle, "From Paris With Love" is relentless and
unremittingly empty.
With: Kasia Smutniak, Richard Durden.
"From Paris With Love" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of
America for strong bloody violence throughout, drug content, pervasive language
and brief sexuality. The film's duration is one hour and 35 minutes.
In English language with occasional French language and English subtitles.
Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film
Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times -
here
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