By Joshua Knopp/reporter
Photo courtesy Lionsgate Pictures
Most movies are put together with cameras, microphones and a whole lot of money. From Paris with Love, however, was put together with a hammer.
The appeal of this movie begins and ends with John Travolta. Over the past 20 years or so, Travolta has shown he’s at his best in films where he’s killing people, such as Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty. Travolta is a bright spot in a similar role here, though instead of working for gangsters, he’s working for the CIA.
That the good guys work for the CIA is about the only thing in the plot that’s made clear. James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) begins as an assistant for the U.S. ambassador to France with a foot-in-the-door, part-time job for the CIA. But then, he gets a promotion to assist Charlie Wax (Travolta), a full-time operative, in his endeavors in Paris.
This event marks the beginning of the second act, where the plot stops making sense. First, Wax and Reese are chasing cocaine dealers, then they’re chasing terrorists, then suddenly a huge plot becomes clear to the characters.
The entire thing is extremely hard for the audience to follow. It feels like scene after scene of John Travolta indiscriminately killing Pakistanis with no connection between one terror cell and another.
There doesn’t seem to be anything at all good to say about this movie. Travolta gives an OK performance, but the rest of it — plot, dialogue, directing — is just bad.
