FROM PARIS WITH LOVE (France 2009) **
Directed by Pierre Morel

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE, Pierre Morel, director of the two successful action flicks, the excellent BANLIEU 13 and TAKEN takes on the current terrorist scene with another actioner FROM PARIS WITH LOVE.  Unfortunately his latest film does not work, as is evident from the first dull 10 minutes of opening footage.  Quel deception!

In FROM PARIS WITH LOVE, James Reece (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers sporting an all-right American accent) is the ambitious follow-the-rules but extremely efficient assistant to the US ambassador (Richard Durden).  He is settled in the French capital and fallen in love with Nichole (Amber Rose Revah) who has actually proposed to him.  His idyllic state is shattered with the arrival of foul-mouthed FBI agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta at his nasty hilarious best!).  Besides having the task of stopping a terrorist attack, Wax’s other task appears to be destroying Reece’s life.  Morel’s film is basically an action flick with a sort of good cop bad cop scenario of battling partners.

Morel spends too much time setting the story of his film.  Many minutes are wasted with the romance between Nichole and Reece with even more time devoted to her betrayal.  One can understand the filmmakers’ purpose of putting a stronger female slant to the film to attract a wider female market audience, but the story is too familiar.  No one is too concerned with plot-points in a Luc Besson actioner anyway.  As in LE CINQUIEME ELEMENY (THE FIFTH ELEMENT), Besson’s most successful movie, the audience is mostly interested in chases and eye candy.  The story is the least important.

To be fair to Morel, his film picks up towards the end with an exciting well shot car chase through Paris’ surrounding highways.  The last segment in which Travolta, nonchalantly delivers straight-faced, the reason of the conference delay to an upset American dignitary contains the funniest line of dialogue I have laughed at in a film in 2009. 

For those interested, watch the French trailer (NOT the U.S. trailer for the film)!  The trailer is extremely well put together, hilarious to the core and shows the best parts of Morel’s movie or what it could have been – a slick, action-packed edgy thriller. 

The sequel to BANLIEU 13 called BANLIEU 12- ULTIMATUM is already on release in France directed by someone new and produced by the legendary Besson encore.  Morel would have done better with this sequel no-brainer than PARIS WITH LOVE.