What Are The Critics Saying?

"Travolta looks positively giddy, dancing with glee as he instigates multitudes of frenetic shoot-'em-up's and let's face it, no one's danced with this much glee over the decades quite like this guy. Based on an original story by Luc Besson, the movie is a high-octane action thriller with all the attendant character humor that, as the genre dictates, comes from the very act of forcing disparate people into fighting crime together. But what sets this film apart is a rare intelligence not often found in this genre" Kimberly Gadette INDIE MOVIES ONLINE "John Travolta, channeling Bruce Willis, goes way over the top as a gun-happy, hard-edged, shaved-head dude." Clint O'Connor CLEVELAND LAIN DEALER "With its generic, Bondian title, its guilty-pleasure pedigree and the casting of a bald and bloated John Travolta, it’s not much of a surprise that "From Paris With Love" is not to be taken seriously. But, ridiculous as the film is, it’s loads of fun, due mostly to skilled action sequences, great chemistry between its two leads, and a hilarious turn from Travolta, in his best role in years. Stephen Silver THE TREND "A breathlessly exciting, surprisingly funny, nonstop 90 minutes of audacious twists, excessive violence, sexy car chases, and just plain cinematic tomfoolery." MaryAnn Johanson FLICK FILOSOPHER "Director Pierre Morel gives the action edgy energy: from Luc Besson's story, and the inscrutable Paris setting that takes us from the top of the Eiffel Tower to the sordid depths of the backstreets where multiculturalism is on display at its grubbiest. There are appealing touches of humour, too." Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE

"Although John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers make an unlikely duo, they perform their roles with gusto. And the fast-paced action here is exciting to watch. I’m happy to report that after disappointing many fans in "Old Dogs", Travolta redeems himself with his take-no-prisoners turn in From Paris with Love. Zoom! Boom! Pow!" Betty Jo Tucker REELTALK MOVIE REVIEWS "Worth watching just for John Travolta's over the top performance." JACKIE K COOPER HOLLYWOOD "Everything's fast and furious, the good guys rarely miss, and the bad guys rarely hit." James Berardinelli REELVIEWS "The story's sole function is to provide an excuse for dazzling action scenes in the Jackie Chan mode: which are again handily worth the ride.Travolta happily chews the scenery. He seems to be having a dandy time, and you probably will too." Andy Klein THIS IS BRAND X "one of the more entertaining and engaging pop entertainments to come along in a while despite its excesses and even because of them at certain points." Peter Sobczynski EFILMCRITIC "This is Travolta's most enjoyable and energetic performance since Pulp Fiction and Primary Colors, and he's a blast to watch." Rene Rodriguez MIAMI HERALD "The combination of the Paris setting, John Travolta in top form as the tough and merciless CIA agent Charlie Wax, a strong plot and some super cool tough-guy dialogue makes this an entertaining and engaging film. Strong craftwork delivers the film in every department and the writing is thrillingly economical." Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE

JOHN TRAVOLTA is Charlie Wax What attracted you to this movie? "As an actor I’m first attracted to what I can do with a character that’s different than what someone else can do with it. This was an outrageous character and it gave me something to do as an actor. I was able to be someone different than myself. And Luc Besson was an attraction because he's an excellent filmmaker and he wrote the script, and I think Pierre’s work was attractive because he proved through a few films that he could do this kind of movie." How would you describe Wax? "A CIA operative that is unorthodox. He is one of those guys who, because he is so good at what he does, can afford to be a little unethical only because he delivers a product of excellence up and above your average CIA operative." Would you say you're an unorthodox kind of actor? "I guess it depends on what you think is unorthodox. In this case, I wouldn’t personally do the things that Wax does at all, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to play someone who does unorthodox things. I did that in Pulp Fiction, I did that in Swordfish and Face / Off and many, many movies where I play guys that are somewhat unethical, but that’s the privilege you have when you are an artist or an actor, you get to do different things." How did you define Wax's look? "Well I think it was myself and Pierre and Luc. I had just finished a movie with Tony Scott and Denzel Washington called "The Taking of Pelham 123" and I had sort of a rugged look going there and I thought, "Well, that worked, but how can I be different in this movie?" So we decided to get rid of the hair and give me a goatee and dress me like a soldier of fortune. These guys are almost stylish now for some reason. It was so bizarre to see this dichotomy of glamour with guns." What do you like about making an action movie? "I like the movement and I like the different mindset." How would you describe Wax's relationship with Reese? "I think at first Wax is trying to estimate who this guy is and how much of a liability will he be or how much of an asset will he be? In doing so, he makes a continuous judgment of where he's at with this guy, but he knows that Reese is a balance to his act. He’s got his own kind of savvy that balances my gruff savvy. My instruction was to help him become more like me, so I’m taking a guy who has potential and turning him into someone a little more rugged." And what was it like working with Jonathan Rhys Meyers? "He's lovely. He's a wonderful actor and he is agreeable and you can discuss anything with him in regards to your job or your approach, and he's a lot of fun. He’s got a sense of humor and he is professional, one of the most professional actors I’ve ever worked with. He knows his lines, he's on time, he delivers great takes each time and you can depend on him and you can adjust: he'll adjust for you too if you need something adjusted." And Pierre Morel, the director? "I'd seen "Taken", and he came very highly recommended by Luc. In meeting Pierre, I had seen that he has a high intelligence, a good sense of logic and a desire to really make a good movie. He’s a very elegant man and a good communicator, very low key and he knows what he wants because you could be doing a scene and he’ll say, "Could you try it this way?" and I find myself usually agreeing with it." How does your training as a dancer still influence your acting? "I wouldn’t be able to do half the stunts that I do today if I didn’t dance because they look like dancers. It’s the same with the John Woo movie. John Woo makes balletic stunts: slow motion and movement and; they're beautiful. Violent but beautiful. I think that if I didn’t have this dancing, I could do it but it wouldn’t be as fluent or as interesting perhaps." JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS is James Reese What was it that attracted you to "From Paris With Love?" "I read the script and I wanted to do this type of movie. I wanted to work with Pierre Morel cause I'd seen Taken. I wanted to work with John and Luc Besson and Virginie. I get to play a guy who has something kind of childish about him, even thought he’s a very grown-up guy and a very responsible guy, but he has this idea of what being a spy is all about and it’s mainly stuff out of comic books. That element makes him like a child in a sense, but then slowly he starts to realize that it’s not all James Bond cars and nice suits and covert operations. It's very dirty and bloody and messy and disgusting: the real world. He is sort of living out his fantasy and the fantasy turns into a nightmare in front of him." What's your approach to a character like Reese? "In my head I have a backstory for him, what this kid could have been like, growing up, high school, night school, all these things. He's not somebody who went to Harvard. I think he probably went to a community college and he learned his mandarin at night school to try to get a good job somewhere. So he is somebody that has to wear a façade a lot. But he's not a character who’s burdened by complexities. Reese has a heart, he is a hopeful guy. He wants to think the best of people." Reese is mesmerized by Wax. Was it the same for you working with John Travolta? "I wouldn’t say I was mesmerized but I’m so fond of him. We’ve had the greatest time together because he is a generous person and he is a very warm person. He has been in movies a long time, so he's got a lot of great stories and a lot of experience. But he is just a really genuine guy, a very open and warm individual, and he is an icon of his time. We were lucky because the chemistry works or it doesn’t work and you don’t know until you get there. So we were lucky that we liked each other and it seems to have worked out okay." Would you say they develop a buddy relationship? "It’s a certain type of buddy relationship because it’s like a mentor-student buddy relationship. I have to go through a lot of really dorky stuff, ethical issues and Reese is far more ethical than Wax. So it’s a buddy movie where there are people who have different ideals and you’re allowed to have different ideals, yet have the same goal which you're going towards." Could you tell us more about your female partner, Kasia Smutniak, who plays Caroline? "Kasia is just great, a wonderful girl. She is Polish which I like because I’m Irish and there’s a weird similarity there. She’s an exceptional actress and it’s rare because she’s an ex-model and you very rarely get an ex-model who really knows how to act. I don’t know why, maybe because for years they have to focus on the appearance, but she actually has chops as an actor. I just thought the world of her. She was a lot of fun to work with. I think people are really gonna like her in the movie." Were you excited to be making your first action movie? "Yes, but it’s hard. When you’re making an action movie, the more enjoyable things are when you’re just doing acting scenes. And the reason is, action scenes look cool but are complicated, they are technically complicated to shoot. So there’s no flow, it’s all little bits, little vignettes and then you cut it together to make it look cool. But it’s not cool to shoot, it just takes time." What was it like working in France? "When you work in foreign countries, and I have worked in foreign countries where I haven’t been able to speak the language, this French crew in particular, they’re just very nice to each other and to me. They’ve been nothing but really pleasant to me. There’s a great camaraderie. The crew actually genuinely like each other and they support each other." KASIA SMUTNIAK is Carolina How did you become an actress? "By accident basically. I was working as a model and I got my first movie in Italy. I did casting and I got into it from there. I love it so much. I had a lot of fun. And I just decided to continue and it’s been ten years now." How did you end up making this movie? "The same story. I was cast in Paris. I just came for a casting and I met Pierre and we did this very quick casting and I didn’t think I might be doing the movie after. And that’s it! A few weeks later they called me and said, 'You got the part!'" What attracted you in the script? "My part is very interesting." How exciting was it to act with John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers? "Extremely exciting, it was a lot of fun. Working with people like John and Jonathan is very helpful and you can learn a lot of things and it was just fun. We meet twice in the movie but we had a very big, important scene during the party in my house." How did you feel on your first day with them? "The first day I started with John and the first day I did all the action things. That was not a lot about acting, that was just about running, jumping from the roofs. I remember when I came back it was like, "This is great fun. I’m gonna have the best time. I knew it." Because I love all the running things and stuff. With Jonathan, my part in the movie is based on Caroline's relationship with him, so it was very important to make it real. We just clicked from the beginning. He's very easy to work with definitely." What about Pierre Morel’s directing? "He is amazing. He helped me a lot. He’s really very patient. He’s the most patient person I’ve ever met in my life. He always puts you in a good mood and I felt safe. When the character is there, you can do whatever you want, so we talked a lot about my character." PIERRE MOREL – Director After Taken, did you want to do something different? "Taken was a single character movie, one guy that had one goal, so it was a pretty straight-forward structure. This one is more complex because when you read the script, it starts out like a funny buddy movie and it was nice to make it evolve, slowly but surely, into a darker plot. From that super fun thing, slowly twist into something darker. The final twist makes it very dark in the end." Was it more complicated handling two actors? "It was a challenge, because in Taken we were on one character, staying with Liam all the way through. This one is more about the relationship between the two guys. It's a two-headed thing, which actually was fun. The two guys are not supposed to work well with each other but they have to, and that’s what makes it fun: having to deal with those two guys, those two characters, and those two actors, actually, who are so different in the way they behave, the way they work." Where did the idea to match John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers come from? "John Travolta was Luc’s idea and we offered it to John because when you see all the movies he has done in his career, you always see him change. He likes to play with his image, he likes to dress and have his hair cut differently from one movie to another. He always changes, he likes playing different characters all the time. We never saw him play a character like this, so we thought it would be a good idea and he seemed to agree with that. Wax is a larger than life, over the top, itchy trigger-finger agent and we had a lot of fun creating the character with him. Jonathan is a way more classical actor. You can feel the difference on set." How did you choose Kasia Smutniak, the female lead? "Kasia, beautiful girl! There are a lot of great French actresses but they hardly speak good enough English to play the part, so we started looking outside of France. Kasia is Polish but she's been living and working in Italy for years. We did a test with her and she just nailed it right away." The Verdict "Travolta and Meyers team up as the CIA's odd-couple in this Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat action packed adult entertainer from the director of "Taken", Pierre Morel. Meyers, playing the impeccably dressed, in over his head, naïve, wannna-be James Reece; is the perfect foil for Travolta's out of control, shoot first, heavy handed, loud mouthed, Charlie Wax. The bullets fly; the action is fast and furious; the kill rate climbs at an alarming rate; the film moves at breakneck speed whenever the bad guys encounter Wax and his reluctant sidekick. For Reece, it's a case of 'be careful what you wish for' as it may not be what you expect: as he quickly discovers. "From Paris With Love" fits the bill for audiences who enjoy heady action films laced with humour. The storyline provides a surprise twist in the last act that will keep cinemagoers on the edge of their seats till the film wraps. Will Wax and Reece return? Who knows? We can only live in hope. Serious fun! SOLID 3 1/2 STARS." The Story Line

A personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, James Reese has an enviable life in Paris. Besides the responsibilty that comes with ensuring the Ambassador's calendar runs smooth and the fact that he has a beautiful French girlfriend, his real passion is his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA. All he wants is to become a bona fide agent: to step-up a level and see some real action. So when he's offered his first senior-level assignment, he can't believe his good luck: until he meets his new partner, special agent Charlie Wax. A trigger-happy, wisecracking, loose cannon who's been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack, Wax leads James on a white-knuckle shooting spree through the Parisian underworld that has him praying for his desk job. But, when James discovers he's a target of the same crime ring they're trying to bust, he decides that for him there will be no turning back.

Who's Playing Who?

John Travolta Jonathan Rhys Meyers Kasia Smutniak Richard Durden Yin Bing Amber Rose Revah Eric Gordon Chems Dahmani Mostéfa Stiti Rebecca Dayan Didier Constant Alexandra Boyd Stephen Shagov Mike Powers Nick Loren François Bredon Sami Darr Julien Hagnery

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Charlie Wax James Reece Caroline Ambassador Bennington M Wong Nichole Foreign Minister Rashid Dir Yasin Foreign Minister's Aide Customs Official Head of the Delegation Embassy Security Embassy Security Chief of Security The Thug The Pimp Chinese Punk

The Production Team

Director Screenplay Story Producers Original Music Cinematography Film Editor Production Designer Set Decoration Costume Designer

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Pierre Morel Adi Hasak Luc Besson Luc Besson & India Osborne David Buckley Michel Abramowicz Frédéric Thoraval Jacques Bufnoir Véronique Melery Olivier Bériot

Run Time 92 minutes Rated MA15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2010 - Hoyts Distribution - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2010 The Movie Pages & impact Internet Services. All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian and International Copyright. Trademark Laws and Intellectual Property Rights apply.