From Paris with Love (15)

Film

Thrillers

749.fi.x491.fromparis.jpg

Time Out rating:

<strong>Rating: </strong>3/5

User ratings:

<strong>Rating: </strong>2/5
Rate this  

Time Out says

Tue Feb 23 2010

‘His playbook may be a bit unorthodox but he gets things done!’ The most recycled snippet of dialogue in the maverick-cop genre is rolled out to honour the dubious methods of lead-sheddin’, gack-snorting FBI wildman, Charlie Wax (John Travolta). Looking like Fu-Manchu in surplus combat gear and not so much chewing the scenery as using it for target practice, he’s teamed with preppy, pencil-pushing office bod James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) to take down a Parisian drug cartel as quickly and violently as possible.

With the story swiftly descending into a series of spuriously linked encounters in which the pair find themselves terrorised by many different ethnic minorities, the film is best when examining the unexpected chemistry between its unlikely leads. Cinematographer-turned-director Pierre Morel (‘Taken’) composes the action sequences with the balletic sheen of Hong Kong-era John Woo, but it’s not enough to allow the film to rise above its guilty-until-proven-innocent conception of justice. Reprehensible, then, but what fun!

Author: David Jenkins

14

Comments

Add +

Release details

Rated:

15

UK release:

Fri Feb 26 2010

Duration:

92 mins

Cast and crew

Director:

Pierre Morel

Cast:

John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak

Share your thoughts
  4. * mandatory fields

Comments & ratings

Rated as: 2/5 (14 ratings)

  • Nice story,told terribly in this film. no swagger no style at all. reminded me of cho yun fat's ''the killer'' only cho's was better.perharps because i have double standards when rating asian clips and hollywood..or just maybe cho's action scenes where better compared to the braindead action in this film. from paris with love lacked believability and the makers were trying too hard to impress forgetting that being impressive requires some finnesse.

    JOE LUGO Sun May 9 2010
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • This was clearly under-rated by the critics. The action was non-stop, it was a great buddy movie which in my view cried out for a sequel

    Frank Sat Apr 3 2010
    Rated as: 5/5
    Report

  • Couldn't agree more with dicky; the film is intensly boring. Braindead action sillyness with an incredibly irritating John Travolta. How it got the 3 stars is a mystery since it's not April's fool yet. The cliches pile up and the story is so vacuous it hurts. Makes cinema a truly painful experience the kind you wish to be inflicted on your worst enemy!

    james Thu Mar 18 2010
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • Efficient action no-brainer.

    critique Fri Mar 12 2010
    Rated as: 2/5
    Report

  • AWFUL

    usman khawaja Sat Mar 6 2010
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • for brainless public

    jules Fri Mar 5 2010
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • Fiction, TimeOut gets it wrong the FBI operates in the USA not overseas. I can tell you that Charlie Wax works for the CIA, fact not fiction. Great film.

    President Bush Thu Mar 4 2010
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • I's gonna do for me boy friend he don't take me to dis crap film last nite - I wus soooo bored.

    princess Thu Mar 4 2010
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • Plotless, charmless, extreme daftness, full of vacuous one liners this makes every James Bond film Oscar worthy material. There is zip credibility between the two led actors with an ultra cheesy ending. The action scenes lack verve, directing skill and any sense of newness; you've seen this all so many time before. James Reece a PA to the US Paris embassy wants to be a CIA agent, he gets his chance from a random link in with Charlie Wax, played at hands-off cruise speed by a wasted talent John Travolta. Charlie Wax can't be killed and James Reece doesn't want to kill anyone; he stands by most of the movie holding a Chinese vase topped up with coke. This is the comedy aspect - an idiot holding a vase. Do not waste your time on this tat - you have been warned.

    Violetta Thu Mar 4 2010
    Rated as: 1/5
    Report

  • Hmmm.. very silly.. but really great fun, high octane.. leave your brain at the door nonsense, Travolta is really good hamming it up, shiny of dome, loose of lip, it's not a film you will have on your all time list, but it is worth a peek and has some really excellent set pieces.

    Russell Wed Mar 3 2010
    Rated as: 3/5
    Report
  1. 1
  2. 2
  • Hotwise
  • Cool brands
  • Star