Starring a shaven headed, goatee’d John Travolta and a dodgy pencil moustached Jonathan Rhys Meyers, from Paris with Love is a movie that requires a few things from its audience.
1) Leave your brain at the door!
2) Convince yourself that while he might look like a bad guy, Travolta is actually a good guy
3) Don’t continually stare at Rhys Myer’s incredibly feeble attempt at facial hair
4) Laugh at the Royale with Cheese in joke, the first time!
From Paris with Love is an action movie full of thrills, spills and dodgy facial hair. The story here is quite simple. James Reece (Rhys Meyers) is an up and coming employee at the US Ambassadors office who is on his way to being a spy..or something. He changes number plates on cars and the likes, real James Bond style carry on. Charlie Wax (Travolta) turns up in Paris as a spy trying to stop a terrorist attack in the city and inevitably its Reece that gets to look after him, and do some spy stuff with a real spy. And that's the story.
The first half of Paris with Love isn’t a positive movie going experience, if truth be told. It’s got a couple of set piece’s and a few cheesy one liner’s. Its not until the second half of the movie, where the actual thing kicks into gear after a nice little twist. And then, its full on fun. More cheesy one liners (wait for the Pulp Fiction reference), bazookas and even more dodgy facial hair and an actual ending that could have be a big pile of steaming easi singles, but isn’t!
It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not a terribly good movie either. The biggest problem for me is that Travolta and Rhys Meyers have ZERO chemistry on screen. I’m not sure what went on between them during the shoot, maybe a few knife fights possibly, but a cop / spy / buddy movie relies on its 2 main leads to carry the thing. This is no Riggs and Murtagh, Christ it’s not even Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. There’s a scene near the end of the movie where Travolta’s character is being driven in a high speed chase and there is more chemistry between Travolta’s character and the driver than in the entire movie between Rhys Meyers and Travolta! Pierre Morel, who directed Taken, keeps the thing moving along, but maybe should have took another look at Taken (which was non stop go go go) as the pace here takes some time to get going!
The first half of the movie reminded me of a group of council workers standing around a tiny pothole. They’re all only there for the sake of it, as is the first half of From Paris with Love. It’s pointless and meanders around the place sporadically, which is quite disappointing as the story is by Luc Besson . That said, the latter half, as mentioned, kicks up a gear and the whole thing turns into a big pile of no brained fun. From Paris with Love is certainly watchable, but you’ll lose around 45 minutes of your life waiting for the thing to kick off, but considering you left your brain at the door, you might not notice!
1) Leave your brain at the door!
2) Convince yourself that while he might look like a bad guy, Travolta is actually a good guy
3) Don’t continually stare at Rhys Myer’s incredibly feeble attempt at facial hair
4) Laugh at the Royale with Cheese in joke, the first time!
From Paris with Love is an action movie full of thrills, spills and dodgy facial hair. The story here is quite simple. James Reece (Rhys Meyers) is an up and coming employee at the US Ambassadors office who is on his way to being a spy..or something. He changes number plates on cars and the likes, real James Bond style carry on. Charlie Wax (Travolta) turns up in Paris as a spy trying to stop a terrorist attack in the city and inevitably its Reece that gets to look after him, and do some spy stuff with a real spy. And that's the story.
The first half of Paris with Love isn’t a positive movie going experience, if truth be told. It’s got a couple of set piece’s and a few cheesy one liner’s. Its not until the second half of the movie, where the actual thing kicks into gear after a nice little twist. And then, its full on fun. More cheesy one liners (wait for the Pulp Fiction reference), bazookas and even more dodgy facial hair and an actual ending that could have be a big pile of steaming easi singles, but isn’t!
It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not a terribly good movie either. The biggest problem for me is that Travolta and Rhys Meyers have ZERO chemistry on screen. I’m not sure what went on between them during the shoot, maybe a few knife fights possibly, but a cop / spy / buddy movie relies on its 2 main leads to carry the thing. This is no Riggs and Murtagh, Christ it’s not even Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. There’s a scene near the end of the movie where Travolta’s character is being driven in a high speed chase and there is more chemistry between Travolta’s character and the driver than in the entire movie between Rhys Meyers and Travolta! Pierre Morel, who directed Taken, keeps the thing moving along, but maybe should have took another look at Taken (which was non stop go go go) as the pace here takes some time to get going!
The first half of the movie reminded me of a group of council workers standing around a tiny pothole. They’re all only there for the sake of it, as is the first half of From Paris with Love. It’s pointless and meanders around the place sporadically, which is quite disappointing as the story is by Luc Besson . That said, the latter half, as mentioned, kicks up a gear and the whole thing turns into a big pile of no brained fun. From Paris with Love is certainly watchable, but you’ll lose around 45 minutes of your life waiting for the thing to kick off, but considering you left your brain at the door, you might not notice!
