Sunday, February 7, 2010

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE

Review: From Paris with Love
1 star (out of 5)
By R. Kurt Osenlund

I was shaking my aching head at the buddy-spy-action-comedy“From Paris with Love” long before the scene in which Charlie Wax, a secret something-or-other (agent? mercenary?) played by John Travolta, whips out a fast food bag on a park bench and tells his partner, James Reese, a wannabe secret something-or-other played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, that he simply can't resist a Royale with cheese. That's right, a Royale with cheese, the very quarter-pounder-en-français Travolta brought to pop-culture prominence when he gabbed about it with Samuel L. Jackson in “Pulp Fiction.”

So many things are wrong with this particular scenario. First there's the deplorable fact that the makers of this movie actually think it deserves to be in the same conversation with one of the greatest American films of all time. Then there's the glaring obviousness of the last-ditch effort to resurrect Travolta's live-wire coolness, which waved “au revoir” even before the Wild Hogs and Old Dogs came into the picture. For me, the scene sealed the deal: “From Paris with Love” is a Royale fiasco.


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