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Capone enjoys the insane French fun of FROM PARIS WITH LOVE!!!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
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.
-- Capone
therealcapone@aintitcoolmail.com
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Like there's any other version.
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Sounds good to me... nothing better to do tonight!
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pot actually helps a great number of sick people far more than hurting them. A better analogy would be fast food: "Fun for a brief 15 minutes, but hurts your arteries for a lifetime."
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Looking forward to seeing this one... but not at the theater.
Sounds a CRANK like experience that is best enjoyed at home with many beers and some good buddies around. -
pelham. That scenery chewing was a thing to behold.
Looking forward to this. -
Bald Travolta / bald Statham / bald Willis = lots of lovely violence.
Bald guys have all the fun. -
it was a fun movie. Yes i agree it did not feel rehearsed. But was half hoping that Jason Stathum was driving the car at the end
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Not the same movie I suspect. Unless Danny Zuko has finally gone the porn route and started making creampie flicks. I'll check it out just to be sure.
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But loved Taken and the district films so I will put said trailer out my mind and toddle off to my local to see this with a smile on face expecting some good old ' let's blow shit up' fun :)
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Looks like Travolta is playing another good-bad guy who does bad things in the name of fighting terrorists. Or am I wrong?
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There's nothing in any of the trailers or anything else that makes me want to see this at all.
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Feb 05, 2010 2:33:09 PM CST
Travolta plays a bad, scary, extremely heterosexual terrorist
by azultool
Either that or he's playing Bald Bull from Mike Tyson's Knockout. Remember, hit him on the X followed by 4 punches to the face.
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...three reviews up in quick succession is great. If only everyone at AICN could work as hard.
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...make that four.!
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They're like normal ones except with lots of extra HAM.
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seriously, he is the worst actor ever. I hate movies simply because he is in them
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The only thing that bugged me was the voice over. Very good director IMO.
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Feb 05, 2010 3:45:49 PM CST
This movie is getting BAAAD reviews -- 33% on RT
by randomwordrandomword
Is aintitcool.com giving Morel the cock suck treatment cuz he's directing Dune?? I say yes.
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So, so bad. This movie is incomprehensible garbage. The story literally makes NO sense, Jonathan Rhys Myers is astoundingly terrible, and Travolta is miscast.
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Feb 05, 2010 4:05:45 PM CST
I refuse after seeing the "Royale with Cheese" joke in a commerc
by blackmantis
Horrible.
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"Taken: kicked ass, this director looks to be the future of manly, testerone fuled action flicks. I will gladly give him my $12 if it means one day he can make a follow-up to Besson's "Professional". One can dream can't he?
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Dude, are you kidding me? You and Armond White are the two critics I know of who enjoyed this movie. Except that troll Armond actually made connections with this and 9/11 :| like he does with all of his movies. I hate that guy. Capone, I don't know if I can trust you anymore
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Feb 05, 2010 4:14:43 PM CST
Travolta...a bald guy who wears toupees in real life and goes ba
by kravmaguffin
This looks like a rental to me. psi
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District 13 rocked, Taken was ok, but this piece of shit didn't make any goddamn sense. It felt like a straight-to-video effort. Travolta ain't bad, JR Myers can't act for shit, and the 'story' is almost completely incomprehensible. Plus, the 'royale with cheese' joke made me feel embarrassed for the filmmakers. Nice try, dudes...
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movies minus the charm of Jackie Chan...
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XENU CURED JOHN OF HIS TABOO YEARNINGS! IT'S TRUE! IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, LOOK: http://www.cultnews.com/?p=2132
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Holy shit the Mid-Atlantic is going to get a shit ton of snow!
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DUMB!!
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Feb 05, 2010 7:34:01 PM CST
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by supermarch
All AICN posts must now end in !!
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I'm sorry, but jesus fucking christ, just LOOK at it. I mean, for god;s sake, bald Travolta overacting? Jonathan Rhys-Myers drunk terrible acting? horrible direction? asinine plot?if ever there were a movie GUARANTEED to be horrible, this is it.
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Yet another film I want to know about, yet another review by Capone, and yet again no spoiler warnings, so I won't read it in case he wrecks it for me without warning. Like he did with Public Enemies...
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and filmed it with a fuckin' camcorder.
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Dillinger was killed on the run. the movie was telling his story. He wasn't gonna ride off into the sunset, was he? Were you shocked when Titanic went down too?
In other news, Taken sucked. That this film was made by the guy who made Taken is not a selling point. Throw in Travolta in "Broken Arrow" mode, and I'll pass. A kidney stone. And enjoy it more. Than this movie. -
John Travlota was bald, I am in a scene when many peopels are shot in a crowd, but this film is pretty good with no robot terminator or giant robot to fight. Also film a scene i a prostitite house, only on special edition DVD and blue ray! THIS DVD WILL MAKE MILION OF DOLAAR!!!1
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where did I say anything about wanting a different ending? point is i didn't know it, he blurted it out before I saw it, and so movie was wrecked.
To answer your question no, i wasn't shocked when the titanic went down, but I already knew it would, and besides- the few reviewers I had read from about that film all had the tact and decency not to talk about what happened at the end.
Like Capone did. Y'know... With Public Enemies. -
What?? I'm sorry, I...I...I...just don't know about this. I refuse to believe it's good.
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Dillinger being shot is, in my book, as common knowledge as the Titanic going down, apollo 13 landing safely, JFK being shot, etc. if you didn't know it, you are an anomaly. you can't expect a reviewer to cater to an outlier such as yourself, just because YOU have somehow avoided a piece of common knowledge.
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As an avi file played on my xbox360.
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maintain your skepticism. Even mediocre fare like Swordfish is probably more watchable that this.
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No, it's not because I'm an anomaly. It's because I am not North American. And as such, I shouldn't HAVE to know all the intricacies of your history before watching a film, even though I did with the Apollo 13 accident, JFK, pearl harbor, Flight 93, etc etc. Saying reviewers shouldn't cater to those that do not have NORTH AMERICAN common knowledge is incredibly short sighted and insulting to the rest of the world. Not least because you're effectively saying ANYONE not living in the good ol' USA is what you define as 'an outlier'. Congratulations, you've just insulted 95.46% of the world's population.
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"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."
Don't flatter yourself. When was the last time you gun-hugging pansies fought a creditable action against the odds? Never? -
you seem to speak pretty damn good English, you ever heard the phrase "Dead as Dillinger?" yeah, that's about him.look, I'm sure someone in the middle of nowhere in India may never have heard about the Titanic. does that mean an American reviewer shouldn't mention that the damn boat sinks just because that person might read their review?it's simply not feasible to expect reviewers to force themselves to write cryptic, awkward reviews of biopics because some people might not be familiar with the subjects. if a reviewer mentioned Ray Charles going blind in "Ray", and you had never heard of Ray Charles, and didn't know he was blind, would you expect a reviewer to somehow review the movie without mentioning his blindness?movies that capture real events CANNOT be held to the same standards of "spoilers" as fictional ones. it's ludicrous to expect that.and thanks for turning to the "Americans think they're the best" argument without a moment's hesitation.just out of curiosity, can you guys which 3 countries I spent my childhood in?
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No, I have never head of that phrase, which is hardly surprising as I do not live anywhere near where it was coined. Do you know any popular phrases surrounding foreign outlaws like Phoolan Devi or Yemelyan Pugachev? Of course not. And yes, an American (or any) reviewer should NEVER mention a crucial late-plot twist in a review without warning. It isn't hard at all to do a spoiler free review and it is certainly not awkward or cryptic for the most basic of writers.
and even if someone DOES do a spoiler review that's fine, as-long-as-they-have-a-spoiler-warning! If you really don't have the talent to keep your reviews spoiler free like EVERYONE else did, all you have to do is put a spoiler warning on and people are properly warned! It's not rocket science!
by the way, I never suggested that 'Americans think they're the best' only that you're definition of outlier and anomaly (!) seems to indicate everyone born everywhere else.
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