The action genre should be kissing director Pierre Morel's feet for adding a little fire and insane fun back into its tired ass. Working for and under the production guidance of Luc Besson for several years (he's also set to direct the reboot of DUNE), Morel directed two dynamite-in-your-pants fun movies, DISTRICT B13 and last year's surprise hit TAKEN, with Liam Neeson. Both films seemed intent on making their action sequences feel as unrehearsed and unchoreographed as possible. The results are some of the most raw and shocking fight scenes I've seen in a long time. With his latest work (from a screenplay by Adi Hasak from a Luc Besson story), Morel takes his organic style adds a layer of crazy in the form of a bald John Travolta, playing the ugliest of ugly American operatives who enters the City of Lights and blows most of it up.
FROM PARIS WITH LOVE begins with James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers in slight wimp mode) working as an aide to the U.S. Ambassador to France. On the side, he also does some low-level spying for the CIA, but is rarely put in any real danger or asked to do anything more than observe or plant the occasional bug. But he's itching to get into the shit. He also has an beyond-believably beautiful French girlfriend, who wants him home more and for them to get married. Rough life for Reece. No sooner does he voice his readiness to be a full-on agent then he's given an assignment to retrieve Charlie Wax (Travolta), a foul-mouthed operative, from French customs (he's stopped for trying to bring energy drinks into the country, but nothing is quite what it seems), then he quickly becomes partners with Wax on a mission that seems to be constantly changing. First it's about drug dealers, then it's about crime families, and eventually it ends up about terrorists and assassination plots.
The reason Wax and the CIA keep Reece in the dark about the true nature of the mission isn't entirely made clear, but it doesn't really matter because it's funny watching Reece react when the stakes get higher and higher with each new round of killing and blowing things up. I'm a genuine Meyers fan, although I'll admit the guy hasn't done a whole lot worth jumping over the moon for beyond Showtime's "The Tudors." Still, it's nice to see him in a role that doesn't require him to lean on his looks or charm. He's pulls of the "fancy lad stuck in a world of violence and evil" role really well.
The subtext about the way Europeans view Americans as roughneck cowboys who come into a foreign land and run ramshackle through property and civil rights is pretty apparent, but I actually found it really funny. As for Travolta, I haven't been much of a fan of his villain roles (THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 being the most recent failure to convince me that he can play a baddie without being obvious), but Wax isn't exactly a villain. As the film goes on, his intentions and apparent heartlessness adjust and come more into focus. It's a more complex character than the trailers would have you believe, and for the most part, he pulls it off convincingly.
That said, many of the film's real bad guys are so blatantly evil and acted so poorly, it made me cringe. And when we get to one of the final action set pieces involving a gathering at the U.S. Embassy, some of the characterizations of the supporting character are laughably terrible. When a security agent tells an official that there's a threat, and the official says to "Ignore it," it takes me right out of the movie because I simply don't believe that would happen. Still, most of FROM PARIS WITH LOVE is entertaining lunacy shot out of a bazooka right into your adrenal gland. Upon reflection, there's no way this film holds up in terms of logic or anything else, but is this really the kind of film that you tend to reflect upon? Of course not. Enjoy it in the moment, and then let is slip right out of your brain like pot smoke. It may not be good for you, but it's fun while it lasts.
