Fear not, I have not forgotten my AFI mission but for now here's another contemporary film review for your amusement...
Gone is the slick darkened hair, the streamlined figure of a disco dancer, and the voice which sang many a ballad or rock 'n' roll melody. His visage may have greatly changed but there’s no doubt it’s still him. Yes, it’s John Travolta. And what’s more he’s taken a dramatic make-under for the leading role in his latest film From Paris With Love, continuing the re-invention trend he’s taken up alongside Hairspray. Can’t think what is making him take up these turns of direction…oh yeah Wild Hogs, oh and Battlefield Earth, the films which undid all his good work in Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty. So, I went along to this movie to see how this role would work out for Mr Travolta on his rollercoaster ride of an acting career.
In From Paris With Love we are invited along on a non-stop action-packed journey of chases, gun battles and blood spatterings as John Travolta and Johnathan Rhys Meyers…well I’m not completely sure, they mention something about terrorists. Yes, that’s right another film where terrorists are the villains in question and our (white, male, American) heroes are the only ones who can stop them. Everyone else, and I mean EVERYONE else is a bad guy/girl, or at least an arsehole. We see them thwart (and insult) the French, Asians, women and Pakistani terrorists. Travolta leads the way with arrogant ease, towing along the ever-panicky Mr Meyers, into a whirlwind of chaos, in more ways than one.
Now, I thought this film looked like good fun, a meaner, more violent kind of Rush Hour, two mis-matched agents thrown together into a plot with moments of amazing fight choreography, flying rubble and wreckage, and occasional quick witted comebacks. Oh boy! I did not witness that here. It started of okay, if fairly formulaic, with Meyers doing a little of his double agent work, planting bugs, following suspects, sneaking around his girlfriend. Then we meet Travolta and, at first, he seems funny in a rebellious fashion and is fairly humorous. However, from the moment when these two take to the streets it starts rapidly going down hill.
As you may have guessed I did not like this film. For at least half the running time I wasn’t even sure what exactly these guys were setting out to do. The whole plot was a mish-mash, running along with hardly time to stop and explain from one boring, and somewhat predictable action piece to the next. The witty comebacks were not that, but seemed recycled from many previous action stars. Travolta after only a short time was getting on my nerves with his cockiness and over-the-top acting, and Meyers was wooden with a dodgy accent. All this plus the fact that we never really see, or get explained in any way, who is really in charge of these two idiots.
I still cannot get over the fact that this film is directed by Pierre Morel, a Frenchman, when this film has racist tones to it! As the lawyer in South Park, who uses the “Chewbacca Defence” would say “That does not make sense.” This film is brainless, messy and predictable, so if that’s what you’re looking for then go ahead. However, if you want brilliant, and original, action, funny banter and ridiculous but brilliant narrative I highly recommend you watch Michael Davis’ Shoot ‘Em Up.
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