From Paris With Love, the latest film from director Pierre Morel (District 13 and Taken) and writer Luc Besson (The Professional, Transporter Trilogy, Taken, and many more), attempts to bridge action with comedy - something that Luc Besson has yet to accomplish - and once again fails miserably at. The movie tries so hard to be funny that the humour actually made me cringe because it was so poorly written, delivered deadpanned, and at times nonsensical to the plot. Nowhere on imdb.com does it say that this is a comedy; the 3-words to describe the film are: action, crime, and thriller. I would say that it would be hard to associate the film with either the crime or thriller genre’s though as the plot seems to recklessly revolve around Reece (Rhys Meyers) who alternates between being the sad-pathetic side kick and a bad ass with no mercy way too often and the ‘crime’ or almost lack-thereof becomes a secondary plot point. When it comes to being an action flick; while yes, the audience is immediately thrown into the action that surrounds the main characters, Wax (Travolta) and Reece (Rhys Meyers) it falls dead when every action sequence is just as predictable as the one before. The pairing of Travolta and Reece is reminiscent of the pairing of Tucker and Chan in the Rush Hour trilogies - the only difference is that Tucker and Chan managed to maintain a likable chemistry amongst themselves while Travolta and Reece’s characters had no chemistry and were as likable as a shot of screech rum and motor oil. The plot twist, if you want to call it that, is predictable and can be spotted a million miles away.
The plot - surrounds a United States Ambassador’s personal assistant in Paris who wants to join a special-ops team on whatever organization he reports to. (We are never told). He is constantly turned down for a special-ops assignment until out of the blue he is assigned a position as a driver to the reckless Charlie Wax who hides guns in energy drink cans and drives around in cars that come equipped with rocket launchers. Wax is searching for a terrorist cell in Paris; although we never know how Wax seems to always know who is involved, how to reach them and where to go to afterwards. The film is just one nonsensical plot point to the next.
Where the movie really started to piss me off was the ending. An important part of any movie script that involves a villain involves a villain’s explanation of why they do what they do. And while this question is breached repeatedly by Reece there is never really a satisfactory answer for the audience, making the ending less than dramatic and ending the film on a very anti-climatic note. As the movie ended, I rolled my eyes, turned to the guy next to me and sarcastically muttered: ‘don’t you just love anti-climatic endings? I think every movie needs an anti-climatic ending.’
The movie was predictable from start to finish. If you want an action-packed plot that jumps from scene to scene like a 7 year old boy with ADD this movie is for you - if you want a movie with substance and a plot? Skip it.
Travolta - I didn’t think you could get worse than you were in Disney’s Old Dogs… I was wrong. At least you have yet to sink back to your levels of Battleship Earth. And please, pretty please, leave Pulp Fiction alone - don’t go quoting lines from Pulp Fiction in your other movies… yes we get it: you love the Royale with Cheese - it was great in Pulp Fiction... just - just - leave it alone. Four people in the entire audience laughed at that line; the rest of us groaned.
2 out of 5 stars
