From Paris with Love (2010)

Plot of From Paris with Love: James Reese is an assistant to the American ambassador in Paris and a low level CIA assistant. Out of the blue he is tasked with assisting special agent Charlie Wax, who has been sent to Paris to track a terrorist cell. They have a fire fight in a triad controlled Chinese restaurant, and leave with a Chinese vase full of cocaine. Meanwhile Reese attempts to keep his girlfriend on side, at one point confronting her while he, Charlie and a hooker are in an elevator. Later they find the terrorist cell, where there are explosive vests, and manage to blow up the terrorists, but they find photos of Reese pinned to a wall. Why? Later, at dinner in Reese’s apartment Charlie uncovers the fact that Caroline, the girlfriend is actually a terrorist. She escapes after shooting Reese, non-fatally, and they realise that the target is an American delegation who are arriving in Paris.

Content: No nudity, although sex between Charlie and the hooker is implied. No drug taking, although a vase full of cocaine features for much of the film.  A lot of shoot outs in a variety of locations. There is a room full of mannequins, which are destroyed during one fire fight. We see Reese with the ambassador, being efficient and with his girlfriend being friendly, But he is a hesitant gunman until tutored by Charlie to do better. There are a lot of shoot outs and one car chase featuring an Audi and an RPG, possibly for the benefit of the poster.

A View: This film only just covered its costs of $58 million and was not much liked by the critics. But I have seen some awful movies, so this one came as a bit of a breath of fresh air. It was gratuitously violent and some have said racist, well most of the bad guys were either Chinese or people of middle eastern origin.  John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers were an unlikely, but effective duo and it was fun. So definitely a watch for nothing if you are a shoot’em up fan.

Fun Fact: Said to be John Travolta’s last worthwhile film.