From Paris With Love

Review by Sean Lynch

There is only one thing worse than a bad action movie, and that's an average action movie.

You see, for years, folks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sly Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme made seemingly terrible action movies, puns and ridiculous kills a joyous art form.

In fact, if you haven't already set aside a night for you and your mates to watch Commando while throwing back a few beers - then yourself a favour, stop reading this and do it tonight!

The pure lack of any credible semblance of quality created a genre unlike any other, one that prides itself on cheese, poor camera work and even less convincing stunts : the "So Bad It's Good Movie".

The thing about the "So Bad It's Good Movie" is that you can't purposely make one - and when you try - you end up with something like From Paris With Love.

Following Jonathan Rhys Meyers as James Reece (a personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France) and his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA, From Paris With Love wants desperately to be a Jason Statham styled B-Grade popcorn classic.

It uses every trick at the genre's disposable (admittedly, the man behind the flick is Transporter scribe Luc Besson, so in theory it should work) but for some reason From Paris With Love fails to ever really be as genuinely good as Bourne, as fun as Taken or as downright stupid as First Blood : Part II.

This largely comes down to casting, in particular, the casting of John Travolta as the traditional "Agent Whose Methods Are Unorthodox" Charlie Wax.

While Wax possesses all of the traits of a classic action movie character (a trigger-happy, wisecracking, loose cannon), Travolta struggles to bring him to life - partly due to the fact it's clear we are watching "Travolta" and partly due to the fact that John Travolta looks like Steven Segal during his "I'm to portly to actually do any real stunts" phase.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers isn't free of blame either. Sure, he may send female hearts a flutter in The Tudors - but when it comes to an American accent and pulling off "My partner is crazy!", he ultimately looks like a little kid trying to mimic "The movie stars I done seen on the tele-box". 

It really doesn't work.

There are some fun scenes (a freeway chase involving a bazooka), but again, it's the Travolta factor (keep an eye out for a stunt in which he slides upside down on a fireman's pole while shooting two guns at once, ridiculous) which ruins any momentum From Paris With Love builds up.

By the time a cringe worthy reference to Pulp Fiction arrives... all hope is lost.

From Paris With Love is not a good film - but it's not a bad film either... and that's the problem.

1.5 out of 5

From Paris With Love
Australian release: 18th February, 2010
Official Site: From Paris With Love
Cast: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Amber Rose Revah, Kasia Smutniak
Director: Pierre Morel