From Paris with Love: John Travolta gives character to uneven but entertaining action flick

John Travolta becomes an action star in this dumb fun spy shooter

Now this is more like the John Travolta I know and love.

If it weren’t for him, “From Paris with Love” would just be another formulaic, secret agent shoot-em-up with some decent action sequences but little to make it stand out. However, with the benefit of Travolta’s rowdy, gleefully over-the-top and undeniably charismatic performance, “From Paris” makes for a fun, amusing 90 minute escape from reality. And for those needing a brainless, bullet-fueled break from all the solemnity of the Oscar season’s prestige pictures, it’s especially welcomed.

The typical “newbie/expert team-up” story begins with James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Myers), a wannabe James Bond working at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. While he’s given small tasks here and there, like switching car license plates and planting a bug in a government official’s office, he’s yet to reach the big leagues, and hopes to attain the rank of a real field agent.

Then the night he gets engaged, Reece receives the call that can at last earn him that promotion. Finally being given his shot, Reece is partnered with Charlie Wax (Travolta, completely bald), the agency’s top operative. Wax is an all-guns-blazing, makes-his-own-rules loose canon, and he and Reece set out on a convoluted mission that starts with eliminating a Chinese cocaine cartel and transforms into stopping a terrorist bomb plot.

“From Paris” starts off slowly, but once Wax is introduced a little over 10 minutes in, the film quickly becomes entertaining, from Wax’s witty one-liners and lack of subtlety in dealing with the bad guys to his ever-growing body count. The crass, chrome-domed and wise-cracking badass single-handedly takes out (with ease) the entire uzi-wielding kitchen staff of a drug-running Chinese restaurant, then stylishly dispatches a gang of unfortunate thugs in the street, and continues as he shoots several waves of lackeys in a warehouse ripe for destruction. And that’s all within the first half.

While the action is pretty cool by itself, Travolta makes it a lot more worthwhile with the wild pizazz he brings to his role. From the unfunny “Wild Hogs” and the mediocre “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” to the atrocious failure “Old Dogs,” he hasn’t had much luck lately so it’s nice to see him back in his element, obviously delighting in the outrageous, unhinged behavior of Wax. He played a similar character in “Pelham,” and his overacting and foul-mouth there were mostly annoying, whereas here he’s fine-tuned that style and injected a healthy dose of humor into his character (the funniest gag coming from a royally cheesy self-reference to “Pulp Fiction”). All of this combines to make Travolta the highlight of the movie, who’s at his best in awhile.

On the other hand, Rhys Meyers feels a bit out of place, at least initially. The chemistry between him and Travolta isn’t always there, and Rhys Meyers’s accent varies a bit from time to time, but since he creates a likable, good-hearted lead, he stays consistently enjoyable to watch. Reece’s contrast as a fledgling agent always wanting to play it safe and by the book to Wax’s uncontrollable killing machine provides some laughs, but after awhile Reece becomes handy with a gun too, and Rhys Meyers grows into his role more fittingly as the stakes are raised.

Director Pierre Morel’s last effort, the revenge action-thriller “Taken,” had a sense of urgency, realism and a desire for vengeance to be served, which all fueled the engrossing, fast-paced plot. In comparison, “From Paris” is much less purposeful, swift and intense. The story is predominantly mindless, mostly just an excuse for Travolta to kill a bunch of bad dudes with a lot of showy gunplay – which, depending on how you look at it, isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Anyone wanting a clever, well-written spy game should look elsewhere, as “From Paris” is quite conventional. The cliches abound in the “veteran/trainee” structure of the two leads and in the numerous ways Wax is always saving Reece’s butt. And save for an unexpected twist at the beginning of the third act, the rest of the movie is quite predictable.

But Morel realizes that he’s working with lighter fare this time around, so he makes sure the film doesn’t take itself very seriously. Instead he focuses on the style, action and humor, and in that regard he succeeds fairly well. The second half of the film is where the bodies really start piling up, and at one point in a heavy shoot-out, Wax descends to the floor below him by sliding down a pole, upside-down, while simultaneously firing his pistol and taking out everyone in the room. Realistic? No. Awesome? Hell yes.

For a late winter, little-hyped R-rated action pic, “From Paris with Love” fits the bill as expected. It’s not really any deeper than guns, explosions and a cool guy shooting lots of baddies, but if you’re ready to turn off your brain for an hour and a half and watch Travolta at his unrestrained prime, then this is a trip worth taking.

Two and a Half out of Four Stars