PHOTO BY PHOTO BY RICK TORRES; COURTESY OF LIONSGATE
FROM PARIS WITH LOVE
Where is it playing?: Movies Lompoc, Santa Maria 10
What's it rated?: R
What's it worth?: $7.00
(Brent)
What's it worth?: $8.00
(Roberta)
James Reece (John Rhys Meyers) is a low-ranking CIA agent working undercover in Paris as the aide of the American Ambassador to France. He finally gets his shot at the big league when he’s assigned to escort top agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta) around the city. But when Wax’s unorthodox methods take Reece on a wild ride through the Paris underworld, will he make it home safely to his beautiful fiancée (Kasia Smutniak)?
Brent: When Reece’s CIA superior (a voice on a cell phone) tells him he’s just going to be “driving Wax around,” we already know he’s going to get in much deeper than that. This is a fast, fun action flick with elements of comedy. Is it monumentally great? No. Is it entertaining? Yes. It has a sense of humor, and takes itself only just seriously enough to feel like it actually has a plot, instead of just being a blur of random action. There’s some stuff in there about drug dealers and terrorists, but this isn’t a ripped-from-the-headlines-type story. It’s the kind of movie where one tough guy—in this case, Wax—can go into a room full of heavily armed men, kill them all in seconds, and walk away without a scratch—or even breaking a sweat. (His name presumably refers to how many bad guys he “whacks,” in the Sopranos sense of the word.) Luckily, Travolta has the star swagger to pull it off.
Roberta: And yes, there’s a lot of violence, but it reminded me of the violence in Tarantino’s movies. If it’s just killing and scariness, then I get upset. But this isn’t like real killing—it’s so over the top, it’s more for entertainment than to make you horrified. And I love it. I was right there with Wax. His character is really, really cool. Right from the first scene, when he’s arguing with customs over his energy drinks, it’s easy to see how his character is going to be. He’s my kinda agent. He cuts through all the formalities and just does it his way. He has a charm to him, and I think the performance was meant to be over the top—and it works. He’s so cute when he’s in a car, singing along with “Close to You” (“Why do birds suddenly appear ... ?”) on the radio.
Brent: I recently saw some clips of his famously bad performance in Battlefield Earth. Between that and the trailer for Old Dogs (whimper), his good performance in this seemed all the better.
Roberta: I was also happily surprised at how cool Travolta looks bald.
Brent: Fortunately, Reece is not just a wuss or a by-the-book stick-in-the-mud for Wax to play off of; he’s got his own cool “chess champ” way of doing things. (And no, he’s not played by that guy from the Indiana Jones movies. That’s John Rhys-Davies.) One particularly funny scene involves his efforts to hide a transmitter in a French official’s office without anybody in the room noticing. It’s also amusing later when he’s running all over the place, carrying a huge vase full of cocaine. Reece does have a tendency to say the name of the character to whom he’s speaking in every sentence, but Wax and Caroline (pronounced “care-o-leen” in the movie) are cool-sounding names, so I forgive him.
Roberta: He’s an interesting character. He’s not as rugged as the other agent, because he’s new, he’s still a little green, but it’s a good match. They’re such good partners, it’s fun to watch them work together.
Brent: His shock and exasperation at the stunts Wax pulls is hilarious. Wax does a number of things that lead Reece (and the audience) to ask the question: Is this guy totally insane? But you’ll have to see the movie to find out the answer.
Roberta: Reece’s fiancée, Caroline, was very good, too.
Brent: Throughout the entire movie, I somehow thought that Smutniak was Penelope Cruz (despite the fact that Cruz’s name didn’t appear in the opening credits). She’s rather charming—we can see why he’s so enamored with her, providing the element of “love” mentioned in the title. Speaking of which, what is with Hollywood movie titles lately? This isn’t a bad title; it’s just not terribly distinctive. It sounds like a play on James Bond’s From Russia with Love, but beyond the obvious secret agent connection, I didn’t see any allusions to Bond. We also wanted to mention that the soundtrack has some nice moments, particularly the Edith Piaf-style number that played over the opening sequence, and the jazz that played in Reece and Caroline’s apartment.
Roberta: I was thinking, if we were secret agents, Brent is more like Reece and I’m more like Wax.
Brent: No argument, here. Except we beat up bad movies instead of bad guys. From Paris with Love, it’s a good thing for you we liked you.
Brent M. Parker is a writer, artist, and aspiring animated filmmaker. Roberta Slutske is his proud mother who taught him everything he knows. Contact them at mail@santamariasun.com.
