Lots of action in ‘From Paris,’ but it makes little sense - Military Movies - Military Times

Lots of action in ‘From Paris,’ but it makes little sense

At this point in his career, calling John Travolta a “scenery chewer” is redundant.

Still, the hyperexcited bender on which he launches himself in the mindless (in a mostly good way) action thriller “From Paris, With Love” may be a new high water mark for him.

As Charlie Wax, a shadowy secret agent with a shaved dome, devilish goatee, big hoop earring and abundant attitude who runs amok in the City of Light in the service of U.S. national security, Travolta doesn’t just ham it up — he’s the ham, eggs, cheese, tomatoes and peppers, with a dash of hot sauce on top.

Yes, he’s the whole freakin’ omelet.

He’s found an ideal filmmaking partner in Frenchman Luc Besson, who produced this film and conceived the original story on which Adi Hasak’s screenplay is based.

Besson, who wrote the scripts for all three “Transporter” films and directed Liam Neeson in last year’s semi-sleeper hit, “Taken,” know only one way to make movies: Pedal to the metal, and no stopping for logic.

In fact, you can glean a pretty good sense of what you’re in for here just from this film’s tag line: “Two agents, one city, no merci.”

The other “agent,” whom we meet first, is Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). He’s ostensibly an aide to the U.S. ambassador to France, but his long-range goals are to break into the espionage biz and to make out with his perfect Parisian girlfriend, Caroline (Kasia Smutniak).

To further his first goal, he’s been working simple, low-level spy taskings for an unidentified (but presumably CIA) superior who is a disembodied cell-phone voice.

Then comes his big break. He’s told to race out to Orly Airport and rescue his “new partner” — Wax, who has just landed and is gleefully offending the heritage of some seriously unamused French customs officials.

The moment Reece and Wax are brought together, Besson, Hasak and director Pierre Morell punch it into warp speed and send this secret-agent odd couple careening all over Paris.

For quite a while, Reece doesn’t even know what the job is; all he can do is try to keep up as Wax — whose trash-talking and death-dealing skills are equally superlative — rolls through the Parisian underworld like a one-man apocalypse.

Not surprisingly, each is nonplussed by the other. Reece has no idea what to make of Wax, who calls his favorite pistol “Mrs. Jones” because “we have a thang goin’ on,” and proclaims his personal mantra — “Wax on, Wax off” — at regular intervals.

And Wax can’t even begin to wrap his mind around the idea of Reece being Company material. “If you wanna be a secret agent man, you gotta roll like a secret agent man,” Wax barks — just before punching another thug in the throat.

So what are they doing? At first, Wax drops hints that he’s out to take down a cocaine-smuggling ring because their product resulted in the overdose death of the U.S. defense secretary’s cokehead niece.

Yes, you read that right.

Eventually, Wax reveals that the op is really all about — what else? — terrorism.

It hardly matters, since the whole thing makes no sense whatsoever. Yet the film never pretends otherwise. It’s completely up front about its single-minded goal: maintaining a kinetic, frenetic, deliriously loopy rush to the finish line.

If “From Paris, With Love” arrived during spring/summer blockbuster season, it would die a fairly quick death.

But a flawed movie sometimes gets graded on a curve simply because of its fortuitous timing.

Sneaking in as it does in the depths of the mid-winter octoplex dead zone, “From Paris, With Love” is a sufficiently loud and rowdy action-movie lark that has the good sense to breeze by in a tidy 92 minutes.

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Rated R for violence, language, drug use and references. Got a rant or rave about the movies? E-mail cvinch@militarytimes.com.