From Paris With Love

Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to France, James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), has aspirations of being a secret agent for the U.S. government. And, after doing a few odd cloak and dagger type jobs he’s eager to do more; when Uncle Sam calls to “activate” him, James could be getting more than he ever wished for. Now required to assist his partner, the brash, daring, and unorthodox Charlie Wax (John Travolta), James is about to get a crash course in foreign espionage. But, who else might be using James for information, and, how far will he have to go to stop a suicide bomber from killing scores of innocent people? from_paris_with_love Thinking good cop bad cop played out buddy drama? You’d be thinking right, but then there’s the twist, it’s set in romantic Paris; and, anything that takes the city of romance and juxtaposes twenty plus bad guys getting gunned down must be kind of edgy huh? Not terribly deep, but I suppose it was worth a shot. Overall the screenplay comes up predictable and stale. Attempts at comedy muster a few chuckles and a few groans and Travolta hamming it up is rather hit and miss. On the positive side, the action sequences take on an interesting sense of chaos that are surprisingly easy to follow despite the fast and frenetic pace. Probably best as a rental. From Paris With Love is rated R.