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From Paris With Love

By Christopher Calicott · 1 Comments · Leave a Comment

Since I was a little kid I've been a fan of John Travolta.  It's not because he's a great actor, because while he's a highly paid, highly popular star, he's just not what would fall into the category of "great," in my mind.  You have to admit, though... John Travolta's got style, baby.  Tons of it. From Paris With Love is no exception.

When I first saw the trailer for From Paris With Love starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, however, I was immediately struck by the off-putting tendency many producers have in trailers: trying to make the lead seem both reinvented and reliable at the same time, unleashing a string of snappy bad ass one-liners that must appeal to some potential audience demographic, because the theater seats never seem to be empty in response to the hype machine. In any case that sort of thing just doesn't appeal to me.  I have to admit, for me, the trailer did not inspire me to see the movie. I suppose it was the actors and a small appetite for a fun little action film.  That's exactly what I got.

Trailer aside, I did make it out to the opening of the movie, tonight.  I have enjoyed Jonathan Meyers' performance thus far in The Tudors so I was curious how he would do with an American accent. I have to say, it isn't very good, but not so much that you notice it very often in the film.  Other than that I thought his performance was really solid.  It was nice to see him play a character that's not driven by his own selfish desires like in The Tudors.  His career is clearly going places and this performance will help that along nicely.  (The Tudors resumes very soon, as well.)  John Travolta's character really felt different to me in the movie than he was portrayed in the trailer.  That's not surprising because trailers seem to have stopped communicating performances and movie quality a long time ago, if they ever did.  I've heard mention online of people saying this might be Travolta's best performance since "Grease" or "Pulp Fiction."  I'm not going that far but I did really enjoy his character and performance.

One thing that action movies have tried and tried again in the past decade or so is to put twist after twist into movies. See?  Even when I write it it's tiresome. A notable quality that I actually appreciate about the plot line in From Paris With Love is what I guess you might call "the untwist."  That is to say that there are some nice devices in the first third of the film to set tone, characterization, and give a feel to the film, without going out of their way to just try and confuse you or mesmerize you with their ability to shock you with the unexpected. That sort of thing is, ironically, so expected nowadays, that it makes most of us yawn and we see it coming a mile off.  Without ruining anything in the film for you, suffice it to say that they play it fairly straight in this one while keeping it interesting, and that alone felt refreshing.

Score

7/10

Being a huge fan of Paris, myself, it's always neat to see a film shot on location there, and this one is no different. The unexpected performance by John Travolta giving us just enough of the "loose cannon" vibe to be fun, yet with a solid, loyal heart of gold, made for for an almost perfect Yin to Jonathan Meyers' work-within-the-system-at-the-embassy Yang.  I went to see a movie and went away feeling I got more than I expected, which to me, is always worth the price of a ticket.  I smell a franchise coming on.  I rate this movie 7 out of 10.

Tags: Christopher, Movies, action, film reviews, John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Tudors