movie review from paris with love

From Travolta with CGI

John Travola in "From Paris With Love."

Pauline Kael has already reviewed this movie in her book Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and it only took her the title. I could go through my usual vaudeville act about chase scenes and queasy-cams and Idiot Plots, but instead I’d like you to join me in the analysis of something that increasingly annoys me.

Imagine we are watching “From Paris With Love” on a DVD with a stop-action button. We look at an action scene all the way through. John Travolta stars as Charlie Wax, an American Mr. Fix-It with a shaved head and goatee, who has been sent to Paris on a mysterious assignment. Not mysterious to him, mysterious to us. It involves Asian drug dealers and/or terrorists from the Middle East. Doesn’t matter who they are or what they do, because their only function here is to try to kill Charlie and his fall-guy partner James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).

OK. We’re on the sofa. We look at the scene. We take a second look. We focus on Travolta. This is an athlete. His reflexes are on a hair trigger. He can deal with several enemies at a time. He can duck, jump, hurdle, spin and leap. One slight miscalculation, and he’s dead. He doesn’t miss a beat. He’s in superb condition, especially for a guy whose favorite food is Cheese Royales. That’s a little joke reminding us of “ Pulp Fiction ,” and the last thing you should do is remind the audience of a movie they’d rather be home watching.

Now we go through the scene a frame at a time. We don’t miss much in the way of continuity, because it’s pretty much glued together a frame at a time. We see a dizzying cascade of images, but here’s a funny thing: We don’t see Travolta completing many extended physical movements, and none involving any danger. The shots of him involve movement, but in bursts of a few frames, intercut with similar bursts of action by his attackers. There is no sense of continuous physical movement taking place within a defined space. No overall sense of the choreography.

I hasten to say this is not criticism of John Travolta. He succeeds in this movie by essentially acting in a movie of his own. The fight construction is the same with most modern action movies. In past decades, studios went so far as to run fencing classes for swordfights. Stars like Buster Keaton , Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Errol Flynn did their own stunts and made sure you could see them doing them. Most of the stunts in classic kung-fu movies, starring such stars as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan , really happen. Sure, they used camera angles, trampolines and wires, but you try it and see how easy it is.

CGI makes that unnecessary. The stunt work is done by computers and the editing process. I fear that classic action sequences would be too slow for today’s impatient action fans, who have been schooled on impossibilities. The stunt driving done in such chase landmarks as “ The French Connection ” and “ Bullitt ,” where you could observe real cars in real space and time, has been replaced by what is essentially animation.

I mention this because last week I saw a good Korean thriller, “ The Chaser ,” and its best scene involved a foot chase through the narrow streets of Seoul by two actors who, you could see, were actually running down streets. In modern actioners, the only people who work up a sweat are the editors.

Anyway, that’s what I had on my mind. As for “From Paris With Love,” it’s mostly bang bang and not kiss kiss; as an actress once asked Russ Meyer : What’s love got to do with it?

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

From Paris With Love

• John Travolta as Charlie Wax
• Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as James Reese
• Richard Durden as Ambassador
• Kasia Smutniak as Caroline
• Bing Yin as Wong

Based on a story by

Directed by.

• Pierre Morel

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Summary A personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, James Reese has an enviable life in Paris and a beautiful French girlfriend, but his real passion is his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA. All James wants is to become a bona fide agent and see some real action. So when he’s offered his first senior-level assignment, he can ... Read More

Directed By : Pierre Morel

Written By : Adi Hasak, Luc Besson

From Paris with Love

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John Travolta

Charlie wax, jonathan rhys meyers, james reese, kasia smutniak, richard durden, ambassador bennington, amber rose revah, foreign minister, françois bredon, chems dahmani, julien hagnery, chinese punk, mostéfa stiti, rebecca dayan, foreign minister's aide, michaël vander-meiren, airport security official, didier constant, customs official, alexandra boyd, head of the delegation, stephen shagov, embassy security, mike powers, jeffrey bracco, chief of security, critic reviews.

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Parents' guide to, from paris with love.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 7 Reviews
• Kids Say 2 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Disappointing thriller pours on the violence.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this overly elaborate action thriller is filled to the brim with gunfights, blood, and bullet-spraying sequences. It attempts to be more complex than the average shoot-'em-up, but the violence is so unrelenting that it becomes numbing. There's also lots of rough-and-tumble language (including…

Why Age 18+?

Abundant and often, including "bitch," "s--t," and "f--k" (and variations like "

Plenty of gunfights, with characters spraying bullets all over the place, their

Cocaine rains down to the ground after undercover agents shoot up a ceiling; one

A man picks up a prostitute and then proceeds to bed her. There's no nudity, but

Logos for cars.

Any Positive Content?

Six words: Be careful what you wish for. In this film, a worldly diplomat discov

Although neither James nor Charlie is particularly virtuous (nor, really, is any

Parents need to know that this overly elaborate action thriller is filled to the brim with gunfights, blood, and bullet-spraying sequences. It attempts to be more complex than the average shoot-'em-up, but the violence is so unrelenting that it becomes numbing. There's also lots of rough-and-tumble language (including "s--t" and "f--k"), scenes with drug imagery and use, and a sequence in which a man picks up a prostitute and has sex with her (no nudity shown, but plenty of moaning). The movie's political themes oversimplify present-day concerns about security.

To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Abundant and often, including "bitch," "s--t," and "f--k" (and variations like "motherf---er"). Also, "goddamn" and "for Christ's sake" used as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Plenty of gunfights, with characters spraying bullets all over the place, their targets slumping on the floor, dead and bloodied. In one scene, people are thrown from great heights and shown hitting the ground. Both good and bad characters train their guns on people at point-blank range, sometimes pulling the trigger. Also lots of explosions, both on purpose and otherwise.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Cocaine rains down to the ground after undercover agents shoot up a ceiling; one of them collects it in a vase, from which they later snort small amounts. Also some social drinking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A man picks up a prostitute and then proceeds to bed her. There's no nudity, but much moaning is heard. A couple kisses in one scene. The girl strips down and changes clothes while her boyfriend has his back turned.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Positive messages.

Six words: Be careful what you wish for. In this film, a worldly diplomat discovers that not everything is as it seems, and that what he has longed for all his life -- a big promotion -- may not measure up to the dream. But those disappointments pale in comparison to true heartache. Also, the movie's story reinforces the problematic idea that violence is a good problem-solving device.

Positive Role Models

Although neither James nor Charlie is particularly virtuous (nor, really, is anyone in this movie...), they do manage to gain each other's respect through hard work and loyalty. James manages to find compassion for someone who betrayed him because of love (though he does hurt her, too).

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents Say (7)
• Kids Say (2)

Based on 7 parent reviews

What's the Story?

James Reese ( Jonathan Rhys Meyers ) has an important job at the American embassy in Paris as an assistant to the ambassador, but he'd rather be a CIA agent. He's performed low-level jobs for the agency before, but nothing too exciting until he gets called on to pair up with Charlie Wax ( John Travolta ), a veteran agent with an unorthodox approach to the job. Right from the start, James isn't sure that he and Charlie make a good team, but there's no time to second-guess. A terrorist plot is unfolding that threatens national security.

Is It Any Good?

This movie's over-the-top and muddled, and discerning audiences aren't likely to feel the love. Director Pierre Morel clearly attended the school of buddy-cop action films: FROM PARIS WITH LOVE has nearly all the ingredients of an edge-of-your-seat thriller: carefully choreographed sequences, a torrent of fast-paced fights and chases, suspense. What's lacking? First, a plot that, at the very least, isn't so annoyingly convoluted as to distract from enjoying the movie in the first place. And chemistry between the two leads, which is passably awkward at best and tin-eared at worst. The partnership between James and Wax simply doesn't fly -- a problem considering its metamorphosis is somewhat essential to the story.

As the rogue Wax, Travolta impresses with his enthusiasm. But we never once forget that we're seeing Travolta playing "bad." As for Rhys Meyers -- his American accent is full of holes, with Britishisms leaking out everywhere. Though he's a fine actor, he doesn't seem fully comfortable playing this role. But, really, the problem's the plot, which panders to today's terrorist fears. And though film buffs may appreciate the Quentin Tarantino reference made by, of course, Travolta, it's yet another awkward moment in an overly violent, nuanced-starved enterprise.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in this film. Do you feel emotionally affected by watching the gunshots and deaths? How is this experience different from what you would feel like if you saw these things in real life?

Charlie Wax appears to perform his duties with little emotional response. Is this necessary in his line of work? What makes him and James similar? Or different? What more relatable jobs require some emotional distance?

Movie Details

• In theaters : February 5, 2010
• On DVD or streaming : June 8, 2010
• Cast : John Travolta , Jonathan Rhys Meyers , Kasia Smutniak
• Director : Pierre Morel
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Lionsgate
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 95 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong bloody violence throughout, drug content, pervasive language and brief sexuality
• Last updated : May 13, 2024

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Movie Review | 'From Paris With Love'

Americans Spark the Gunfire in the City of Light

• Share full article

By Stephen Holden

• Feb. 4, 2010

A conservative estimate of the escalating body count in Pierre Morel’s gleefully chaotic action-adventure comedy “From Paris With Love” is two dozen a day, boasts John Travolta’s trigger-happy character, Special Agent Charlie Wax. But as you watch Mr. Travolta, twirling a weapon in each hand, dispatch the members of a Chinese drug gang in a Paris restaurant and later in a nearby apartment, it could be a hundred or a thousand. In a rare moment of contemplation, Wax remarks that there are a billion more to be disposed of.

This gonzo wild man storms into the movie at a Paris airport, where security refuses to let him enter the country with his precious energy drinks whose containers hide firearms. But with the last-minute intervention of his new partner, James Reese (a mustachioed Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a personal aide to the American ambassador in France, Wax is allowed in.

Winking broadly, “From Paris With Love” leads us back into vintage James Bond territory where fiendish Asian baddies were casually exterminated like so many cockroaches. What’s another billion anyway? In this movie, whose title echoes that of the second Bond film in that endless franchise, the drug dealers are somehow related to the Pakistani terrorists on whom “From Paris With Love,” all but forgetting about drugs, directs its searchlights in its second half. The turning point comes with the smashing of a cocaine-filled vase that Reese has been dutifully toting from place to place.

“From Paris With Love,” Mr. Morel’s follow-up to his B-movie blockbuster, “Taken,” is a really a one-sided buddy movie in which a leather-clad Mr. Travolta, with a shaved head and an earring, camps it up in the Vin Diesel supermacho style. Details in the screenplay by Adi Hasak, based on a Luc Besson story, signal that beneath his facade Wax is really a softie. He goes moony when a recording of “(They Long to Be) Close to You” comes on a car radio, then demands his companions not tell anyone of his weakness. Late in the movie he is also revealed as a killer at the chessboard, as is Reese.

Mr. Travolta so completely dominates the movie that Mr. Rhys Meyers can barely crawl out from under his shadow once Wax appears. Mr. Rhys Meyers’s better moments all occur in early scenes before Mr. Travolta blasts onto the screen. Reese has a seemingly perfect girlfriend, Caroline (Kasia Smutniak), and is the apple-polishing golden boy of his boss, Ambassador Bennington (Richard Durden). A low-level operative for the C.I.A., Reese has cloak-and-dagger dreams that are finally rewarded when he is teamed with the appalling Wax.

I am ashamed to admit that this empty-headed, preposterous, possibly evil mélange of gunplay and high-speed car chases on Parisian boulevards is a feel-good movie that produces a buzz. Even more than “Taken,” a kidnapping drama with the semblance of a heart, “From Paris With Love” wallows in action for action’s sake.

The set pieces are precisely calibrated movements in a symphony of violence with no adagio. There is the scene in which Reese watches spellbound on a circular staircase as bodies plummet past him. During a breathless highway chase Wax hangs out of the car window with a rocket launcher aimed at the green Volvo driven by a terrorist, and you can hardly wait for the detonation.

The soundtrack, in which David Buckley’s beat-driven orchestral score seamlessly mingles with the sounds of gunfire, suggests a hip-hop suite precisely coordinated with Michel Abramowicz’s jiggling, agitated cinematography. In these scenes you lean back, let the action wash over you and feel the caffeinated glow as it seeps into bones. For better or worse, “From Paris With Love” is an effective stimulant.

“From Paris With Love” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has violence and profanity.

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Pierre Morel; written by Adi Hasak, based on a story by Luc Besson; director of photography, Michel Abramowicz; edited by Frédéric Thoraval; music by David Buckley; production designer, Jacques Bufnoir; produced by India Osborne and Virginie Besson-Silla; released by Lionsgate. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.

WITH: John Travolta (Charlie Wax), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (James Reese), Kasia Smutniak (Caroline) and Richard Durden (Ambassador Bennington).

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From Paris With Love Reviews

The most underdeveloped character... remains Paris. Why set a movie in the City of Lights if you aren’t going to exploit it for everything it’s worth? The movie could’ve been called “From Cleveland with Love” and no one would’ve known the difference.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 22, 2023

The velocity is hypnotic and Pierre Morel is the magician in this sleight of hand. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Oct 19, 2022

There's never a break to build character, a pause to appreciate a joke, or cessations in the franticness to allow for explanations.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Nov 29, 2020

Essentially a CIA action thriller with your rather run-of-the-mill buddy flick angle attached to it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 8, 2020

A crime not just against cinema but all of humanity, it's been a long, long time since a movie made me this mad.

Full Review | Original Score: .5/5 | Sep 12, 2019

From Paris With Love is dopey, slightly predictable and probably a little excessive. It's also a lot of fun.

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 10, 2019

Aside from a generic plot twist and a little clever banter between the two fellas, From Paris With Love fails to deliver the excitement to which the trailer alludes.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Sep 11, 2017

This thing is fun. Dumb fun. Overdone fun.

Full Review | Aug 25, 2017

The goatee-sporting, shaven-headed Travolta throws himself around with gusto, and the action is bruising and bloody, but to a viewer on this side of La Manche, the film's casually racist attitude to its non-white characters is shocking.

Full Review | Aug 2, 2012

...a workable premise that's squandered from the word go...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 21, 2011

If you like a violent, silly, frenetic style of film you'll find plenty to enjoy here.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | May 6, 2011

Suddenly I'm nostalgic for Battlefield Earth.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | Apr 4, 2011

It's stupid, it's unoriginal, and it makes very little sense... but that's not all bad.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 3, 2011

Travolta stuffs it up, again.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.0 | Dec 25, 2010

Lacking any compelling style, attitude or storytelling.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jun 21, 2010

A fun, over the top action movie that doesn't care that it's stupid and over the top.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 20, 2010

Not even the pleasures inherent in watching John Travolta mug it up as a gonzo CIA operative bent on breaking things and killing people... are sufficient recompense for sitting through this by-the-numbers slog from the fevered brain of Luc Besson

Full Review | Original Score: 78/100 | Jun 16, 2010

Morel's underrated eye and knack for making kinetic movement rhythmic and easy to follow elevates Besson's run-of-the-mill, mismatched-buddy thriller into a propulsive, enjoyably Eurotrashy entertainment.

Full Review | Jun 15, 2010

It's both a classic mismatched buddy action movie transplanted to Paris and a French idea of an American action movie abroad.

Full Review | Jun 11, 2010

With a screenwriter formerly of the Israeli Airborne Defense Forces, this is the kind of sour anti-terror travelogue where you're set up to howl on cue when bearded or burka clad Arab insurgents are preemptively shot in the head or blown to smithereens.

Full Review | Jun 2, 2010

Screen Rant

From paris with love review.

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Screen Rant's Paul Young reviews From Paris with Love

After last year’s break out hit Taken , I was hoping director Pierre Morel would come out swinging once more with his next film From Paris with Love . After all, it’s based off a story that Luc Besson wrote and it stars heartthrob Jonathan Rhys Meyers (who was fantastic in The Tudors ) and Hollywood action film staple John Travolta. Unfortunately, this film is full of more standard action movie clichés than I could count. I didn’t hate the film but I did find myself yawning and actually got up to use the facilities and wasn’t in a real hurry to get back. Oddly enough, I didn’t miss anything related to the story.

As for the plot, it goes something like this:  James Reese (Meyers) is an undercover agent working for some extension of the US government (which is never identified) as a personal aide to the American Ambassador in France. He aspires to be something more than an errand boy, swapping out license plates and planting listening devices and soon gets his chance from “The Voice” on the phone.

His first major assignment is to pick up his new partner, Charlie Wax (Travolta), at French Customs and assist him in his assignment. From there the story goes off the rails and never really gets back on. The pair then go after a Chinese cocaine ring, which somehow leads them to an Indian money laundering outfit which in turns takes them to some Pakistani terrorists. A quick twist here, a couple more clichés there and the movie is over. Oh yeah, and there is a lot of cussing, shooting, things blowing up and a lackluster car chase thrown in for good measure.

The one thing I couldn’t quite understand is why was this set in France? The only French people in the movie are the customs agents and some policemen who get blown up just as soon as they show up on the scene. The good guys are American covert agents, the drug lords are Chinese, the pimps and terrorists are Pakistani and the summit the Ambassador is attending is for Africa. The only landmark shown in the film is the Eiffel Tower and that is literally for one scene and plays no part in the story other than something very minor. There are no mimes, no open markets or no art-filled courtyards. Heck, most of the extras don’t even speak French. This whole story could have easily been set in Thailand, Russia, England or Los Angeles and it wouldn’t have changed the plot one bit.

As for the performances, I was really digging Travolta as the out of control, “my way or the highway” loose cannon on a rampage special agent but it started to get old after about 30 minutes. Travolta is obviously having a good time playing the character and it shows. Ultimately, he is one-dimensional and I found myself getting bored by it. Meyers is no better at portraying his character as a sheepish junior agent who is in over his head and clueless to things going on around him. He also feels his love for his new fiancé is stronger than his duty. Both characters weren’t given much thought and Reese follows Wax around for most of the first act carrying around a big Chinese vase full of cocaine.

Any one or two of these things in the movie wouldn’t normally be enough to make a film ho-hum but the fact that there are six of seven things going wrong, makes it a big letdown.  If your girlfriend, for some unexplained reason, doesn’t want to see Dear John this weekend, then I suppose you could watch From Paris with Love instead but really your time might be better spent sharing a milkshake at Johnny Rockets.

Also, for all you Pulp Fiction lovers out there, see if you can spot the nudge-nudge, wink-wink to that film.

From Paris with Love isn’t a complete waste of time but it’s pretty darn close; I’ll just have to wait for Taken 2 for Morel to redeem himself.

From Paris with Love

From Paris With Love is a 2010 action film starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The pair play Charlie Wax and James Reese, a US Ambassador employee and an American spy who work together to prevent a terrorist attack in Paris. The film was directed by Pierre Morel and written by Adi Hasak and Luc Besson.

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Metacritic reviews

From paris with love.

• 70 New York Magazine (Vulture) David Edelstein New York Magazine (Vulture) David Edelstein Morel will inevitably be compared to John Woo, whom he trounces. He has fewer mannerisms (no damn doves) and a keener eye; his fastest, most kinetic shots flow together like frames in a flipbook.
• 70 Village Voice Village Voice He (Morel) brings in lobotomized entertainment at 90-odd minutes. During the February doldrums, this cannot be underestimated.
• 60 Time Out Keith Uhlich Time Out Keith Uhlich John Travolta breaks the braggadocio meter in the latest tightly wound actioner from "Taken’s" Pierre Morel.
• 50 The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen Travolta has/is a blast in an action-thriller-comedy that otherwise comes up short.
• 50 Variety Variety To his credit, Travolta hams it up with the kind of laissez-faire irony that might have made the film a tongue-in-cheek pleasure, had his attitude extended to the filmmakers.
• 50 Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz Doesn't really know what it wants to be. Morel would have done better to remember the "to thine own self be true" bit, and stayed with the dunderheaded shoot-'em-up vibe, with Travolta having a blast, often literally.
• 50 Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore Basically a bloody buddy picture that tries too hard.
• 50 Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman A ''fun trash'' movie that's more trash than fun.
• 50 Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert I hasten to say this is not criticism of John Travolta. He succeeds in this movie by essentially acting in a movie of his own.
• 40 Boxoffice Magazine Pete Hammond Boxoffice Magazine Pete Hammond If so inclined for a breezy, violent time-waster audiences could do worse. Travolta sadly can do so much better.
• See all 32 reviews on Metacritic.com
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