JG's Theater Review - From Paris With Love

Okay, so here's the deal; I can't decide between whether or not to treat this movie as your average shoot em up style action flick, or a movie with something of a deeper meaning, so I won't. For my first ATM review I will give you two sides of one very mismatched coin, possibly its one of those funny Canadian pieces, the loonie if you like.

Read the rest of my review after the jump.

On the one hand, Action Movie:

From Paris was, simply put, totally man-tastic. It had everything us meat-eating, gun-loving, violence-craving He-Men could ask for from an action movie. Explosions? Check. Gratuitous death? Check. Terrorists eating a lead sandwich hold the mayo? Ameri-fuckin check yeah! John Travolta? That's a big che- wait what? Yes, John Travolta is in this movie, yes he plays a badass secret agent named Charlie Wax, and believe it or not he pulls it off so well you might almost be able to forget he once starred in a movie about Scientology.



He puts the hurt on enough Asians, French thugs, and Muslim extremists to make it worth seeing the movie for the ass kicking and explosions alone. But, therein lies my aforementioned feelings of schizophrenia, because that is not all this movie contains.

On the other hand, deeper questions and emotional subplot?

Playing the intelligent, uptight, and untrained counter-part to Travolta's Wax is Jonathan Rhys Meyers. As much as I loved all the mindless bloodletting dished out by John, the story is really about Meyers' character James Reese. Reese is a Junior Field Officer for the CIA working undercover at the US Embassy in France, he wants desperately to become a fully trained field agent and does his best to prove his worth, somewhat successfully. Also he has a smoking hot French fiance. Reese adds an element of morality and justice and blah blah blah to the film that you normally don't get to see.

Without giving too much of the movie away there is a whole side story to the film that changes up the normal action movie structure. Add to that an ending that is not quite as predictable as most of these shows tend to have, and a lot more funny than you usually get and this experience is anything but your generic Arnold “I'll be back, just after I blow some more stuff up” thrillers.

Inconclusive, er, In conclusion:

Perhaps I am looking too deeply in to this, maybe I should just take it at face value and not over-analyze the emotional response or lack thereof the untested Reese has to all the bloodshed around him. In the end I went there to be entertained, and oh lord was I entertained. I am forced to recommend this movie for that alone, though I will caution occasionally it tries too hard to be something its not.

From Paris with love gets 3.5/5