An efficient employee to an UN Ambassador in Paris, James Reece(Jonathan Rhys Meyers) moonlights as a low-level agent(..obeying the commands sent to them through messages on his cell phone), hoping for his opportunity to become a legitimate worker in the field, getting his chance as the partner to a very unpredictable American "assassin", Charlie Wax(John Travolta) who is called on to eliminate a terrorist network. He conducts his business in a very aggressive, but proficient, way, leaving plenty of dead bodies behind him.
This movie, presented by Luc Besson based on his own story, has your basic terrorist plot, with the appeal being the odd pairing of corporate suit hotshot Reece, and the rather dynamic Wax, who often surprises his young protégé by shooting many people in the head, afterward explaining his methods in detail as action commences.
It's Travolta's turn as the one-man-army, getting to use a hand gun, machine guns, C4 explosives, and a missile launcher. Wax is very skilled in the art of killing(..and leaving a lot of damaged property)while Reece often looks rather dazed and taken aback by how violent scenarios escalate in an instant. Wax may look and behave like a wiry loose cannon, but he always has an answer to every move he makes..it all shows he has prepared and studied his targets, knowing who and where they are. We get an idea as to how effective this covert cloak-and-dagger organization really is, through constant contact with outside resources always channeling information back and forth as to what steps to take next.
Some mighty fine action set pieces including shootouts in a Chinese restaurant, a mannequin factory, and a street slum terrorist cell located in an apartment complex. There's an exciting car chase as Wax and his driver follow in hot pursuit behind a terrorist with plans to encounter an American consulate, his vehicle bomb-heavy. During this key car chase, Wax spends a lot of the time hanging outside a window with a missile launcher, trying to lock his target in his sights before the terrorist achieves his ultimate goal. Travolta is both playful and vulgar as Wax, a man who is very blunt and honest, not one to mince words when it comes to his job. I think a film such as this always works when we can gauge the rookie's response to his professional counterpart's ways of handling situations which often end with buildings blown apart, people gunned down, and cars exploding.
A development in the plot regarding Reece's fiancé is the emotional arc of the film, and it creates a major problem which changes his world forever.
The film, from the director of TAKEN, provides plenty of street gangs, dope-pushers, and Pakistani terrorists for Travolta to obliterate, an innumerable amount of corpses left in his wake. Travolta's stuntman was put to work in this movie as Wax slides across tables and down rooftops, not to mention constantly dodging bullets aimed his direction, walls and windows the ultimate victim. Travolta even gets to take apart a gang of Paris Asian hoods using their own weapons against them! From Paris with Love sets up Reece's life, and once he meets Wax, it takes off, never catching a breath. Wax, barely in Paris five minutes, induces his altercation with cocaine smugglers, has Reece collect some of the product in a Chinese vase, and moves through the city at an intense pace. The plot may be rather unspectacular, but the action is almost non-stop..even a seemingly festive dinner erupts in an outburst of violence.
