.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

I hate loving John Travolta. Why? Because the return on investment sucks. From Domestic Disturbance to Wild Hogs to The Punisher to Old Dogs, Travolta continues to be in one dud after another. Yet, for some reason, Pulp Fiction, Face/Off and Get Shorty gave him enough Get-Out-Of-Jail free cards that I continue to hold him in high regard even if he has shown me nothing to deserve this admiration in the past 10+ years.

His latest, is From Paris with Love, a Luc Besson story about a U.S. Aide in France named James Reece (Jonathon Rhys Meyers) that gets a chance to become a secret agent when he gets teamed up with eccentric Charlie Wax (Travolta) who's been sent to Europe to thwart a possible terrorist attack.

Directed by Pierre Morel who was behind the camera for 2009's surprise hit, Taken, From Paris with Love spends the first 15 minutes of the film boring and lulling its audience to sleep. Maybe that was their tactic. Maybe by having the lead character (Meyers) so boring and the story so uninteresting, that the mere infusion of Travolta's Wax will inject cheers from the audience which they would hope to maintain throughout the remainder of the film.

Too bad the rest of the film sucked as bad as the opening.

From Paris with Love is one of those films that is too stupid to appreciate. Too ludicrous to get involved. And too flat and unoriginal to waste your money viewing. As the story progresses and the two leads become partners, we get the stereotypical action pairing - one is a wise-cracking, on-edge genius and the other is the geeky suit who always seems one step behind. Together they will shoot multiple bad guys without any real threat to their own well being and end up saving the day just like countless other films of the same ilk.

Not even the action sequences are worthy of mention. There is a car chase scene that is incredibly boring even with Travolta hanging out of a speeding vehicle with a rocket launcher on his shoulder. It's surely mitigated by the ridiculousness of Wax taking a phone call while hanging out the window.

Everything that I could possibly comment on From Paris With Love is going to sound like a 1980's buddy cop film. Only difference is, the 1980's buddy cop films usually had some redeeming quality that was worth the time investment.

Not here.