From Paris With Love

Here's my 420 word movie review of Travolta's FROM PARIS WITH LOVE for the Copenhagen Post... my first review:

I should start by saying I’ve never reviewed a movie before. I’m a filmmaker and assuming the role of reviewer is playing tricks with my gag reflex. The two Hollywood films I’ve co-written have been destroyed by the press and I have to confess some animosity towards the pseudo-intellectual film industry tourists that aggressively critique something they lack the talent to create themselves. But, things being what they are, I’m here and you’re there, so let’s get started ruthlessly dissecting FROM PARIS WITH LOVE.

But first an aside – I’m sure you’ll be interested in a brief look at the mechanics of a film review. How it works is the film distributor, in this case Nordisk Film, holds a screening a week before the release, first thing in the morning. They dish out free coffee and croissant and try as hard as possible to put the reviewer in a good mood. Did it work?

The sixty million dollar (U.S.) action thriller with a deceptively romantic title, matches John Travolta with burgeoning star Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Travolta plays an experienced government operative, while Meyers’ character is a newcomer to the, “save the world from terrorists” game. The film tries to be cutting edge and push the boundaries of the genre, but the grittiness feels manufactured and the dialogue bogged down in cliché. There’s nothing fresh or innovative in terms of concept or craft and the action plays out like the film was shot a decade ago and got lost on the way to the theatre. It’s not a terrible movie – the story moves quickly and you could do worse with your ninety minutes, but you’ve seen this movie before. Travolta even goes so far as to tip his cap to better days having his favorite meal, a “Royale with cheese” hand delivered. You know your career is toast when you’re quoting yourself from a different movie.

What happened to Travolta anyways? For his first movie without his trademark wig (he’s bald), you’d expect more… I don’t know, “oomph” – is that a film reviewer word? Travolta delivers some tricky lines, but his counterpart Meyers’ portrayal lacked verisimilitude and was so forced he might as well been reading cue cards. A few years back, I was Associate Producer of a movie that was trying to cast Meyers and after some serious inquiries we learned he was “trouble”. There’s a scene when Meyers briefly seems disinterested by the prospects of snorting a line of cocaine – perhaps the only real acting he did all movie.