Dir. Pierre Moral, France, 2010, Year, 92 min, some French and Russian with subtitles

Cast: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Review by Carol Allen

An action movie in which Rhys Meyers and a flamboyant, screen hogging Travolta play CIA officers on the trail of terrorists in Paris. Plenty of gun toting action, not a lot of love and Paris doesn't get much of a look in either.

James Reese (Rhys Meyers), sporting a forties style pencil moustache, is a junior CIA officer attached to the American embassy in Paris.  He dreams of action but most of his duties are confined to pen pushing.  Until that is they day when he is teamed with Charlie Wax (Travolta), a bald headed, trigger happy maverick in the style of Bruce Willis, who makes his entrance in the film battling with Parisian airport security as he tries to smuggle in his arsenal under the guise of energy drinks. Initially on the trail of drug barons, who at some point in the film turn into Pakistani  terrorists, Travolta storms though the movie, guns blazing in both hands with a bewildered looking Rhys Meyers trailing behind him and clasping to his bosom for reasons too complicated to explain a vase packed with cocaine. Also involved in the plot is Reese's girlfriend Caroline (Kasia Smutniak), who has a hidden agenda of her own.  

I suspect it's supposed to be funny, though it's the sort of humour which is likely to appeal more to fans of the sort of movie this is trying to spoof. There's an enormous body count from Wax's gunplay, plenty of car chases, loads of stunts and not really an awful lot of story. Travolta though is fun to watch, Rhys Meyers seizes the occasional opportunity to add a bit of intelligence and interest but  Paris herself doesn't get much chance to show off her attractions. Apart from a very few scenes, this film could have been set in any city in the world.