Out this past weekend is the movie “From Paris with Loveâ€. The movie revolves around James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who has been doing small intelligence work for the government while maintaining his position as France’s U.S. Ambassador’s aide. His main objective is to become a full fledged Special Ops Agent. After the government feels he is ready to handle a bigger assignment, they assign him to their highest ranking Special Ops Agent, Charlie Wax (John Travolta). What they don’t tell him is that Wax is a wise cracking, take no prisoners, and by any means necessary type of guy. Their mission is to infiltrate and dismantle a possible terrorist threat upon the French embassy. He soon learns that being a Special Ops agent may be more than he is equipped to handle, especially when teamed up with this guy.
John Travolta is one of my all time favorite actors. He always seems to make any character he portrays, the coolest guy in the picture. Even when he plays a guy on the wrong side of the law, like Vincent Vega in “Pulp Fiction†or Gabriel Shear in “Swordfish†or even in his last villain role as Ryan in “The Taking of Pelham 123â€, he makes you want to root for the bad guy, cause he’s just such a cool character. Now don’t get me wrong, in this movie he is playing a good guy, but if you’re on the wrong side of the law, you don’t want to run up against this agent. His tactics are a bit under the radar, but he gets the job done. From the time Travolta comes into the movie, which is roughly after the first 30 mins or so, you are overwhelmed at how cool this character is. He’s brass, obnoxious, rude, and a real low life, but he’s one guy you definitely want on your side.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers’s character James is the total opposite of Wax, which plays off so well to the complete mayhem that Wax brings to the table. He’s all about going by the book, but that will get you killed in the neighborhoods that Wax is taking him through. He’s a guy who wants to be an agent, but never would have guessed how dangerous the job can really be. I enjoyed this movie very much. It was definitely a guy flick. Some woman might not appreciate the bad ass character that Travolta is portraying, but guys will love it. If you want to see an action flick that will also make you burst out laughing, then this is the movie for you. Travolta did a great job with this one. I give this movie 2 ¾ shots out of 4. There isn’t much to the story, but the movie was very enjoyable overall. It’s rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, drug content, pervasive language, and brief sexuality. It runs 1 hour and 35mins. It was written by Luc Besson and Adi Hasak. It was directed by Pierre Morel. It was produced by Europa Corp. It was distributed by Lionsgate.
In France a Quarter Pounder is called a Royal with cheese. – Vincent Vega (Pulp Fiction, 1994)
Next week’s review: TBD
