Movie Review: “From Paris with Love”

Seen on: February 2, 2010

The players: Director: Pierre Morel, Writer: Adi Hasak, Cast: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak, Richard Durden

Facts of interest: Pierre Morel also directed "Taken."

The plot: A Paris-based agent teams up with a badass U.S. agent to stop a terrorist attack planned on French soil.

Our thoughts: Following his surprise hit “Taken,” Pierre Morel returns to the big screen with “From Paris with Love.” Don’t be fooled by the title though, because this is not a romantic story set in the city of love. On the contrary, this film is an outrageously ridiculous and yet quite entertaining action comedy filled with stupid action, bad dialogue and a totally crazy performance by John Travolta.

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This week's new movie releases - Feb. 5, 2010

Opening this week are Lasse Hallström's romantic drama "Dear John" with Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, and Pierre Morel's action thriller "From Paris with Love" with John Travolta.

DEAR JOHN (with Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried)

Synopsis: The film tells story of John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John's increasingly dangerous deployments.

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New 'From Paris With Love' trailer so-so

Trailer for Morel's next ain't that cool

Pierre Morel's "Taken" stormed the box office by surprise last year and even brought in some positive reviews. I enjoyed the film as well, even though it ranks as one of the most over-the-top thrillers I've ever seen. Still, it was silly fun to watch.

Now Morel has a new film coming out, and it's titled "From Paris With Love." Sadly, it looks terrible, even though the cast includes John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. A new trailer has popped up online, and you can check it out below.

Based on a script by Luc Besson and Adi Hasak, the film centers on an embassy worker who encounters an American secret agent during a risky mission in the French capital. As you can see in the preview, it's all boom and bang.

Boom and bang can be fun, sure, but not when Travolta looks this ridiculous. I'm sure he had tons of fun playing the bad-ass American who kicks everybody's ass and blows shit up with a giant bazooka, but something about this just doesn't feel awesome.

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Pierre Morel will direct 'Dune' adaptation

'Taken' director Pierre Morel travels to the 'Dune' as director of the anticipated adaptation

Pierre Morel could be described as one of the busiest directors out there. The "Taken" helmer has a number of projects coming up, and the latest he's joined is Paramount Pictures' adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi adventure "Dune."

Peter Berg was originally set to direct the film, but Variety says Morel is now officially on board to get the show on the road. Josh Zetumer developed a draft of the script with Berg, but Paramount will hire a new writer to complete the project.

"Dune" arrived on the big screen in 1984, courtesy of David Lynch. THe novel was also adapted into a mini series for television. Berg was quite passionate about directing the film, but he recently backed out to helm "Battleship."

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Pierre Morel to direct 'Signals' thriller

Pierre Morel has been inking quite a few deals ever since his fast-paced thriller "Taken" turned into a box office hit, and one of his upcoming projects is a thriller titled "Signals" for Media Rights Capital.

Plot details are stirctly kept under wraps, but The Hollywood Reporter says the film should take on the tone of a 1970s-era paranoid thriller like "Three Days of the Condor."

Richard Potter and Matthew Stravitz penned the script, and MRC is convinced Morel is the perfect man for the job. Morel's next film, "From Paris with Love," will open Feb. 5, 2010.

Morel is also developing thrillers "Pursuit," "Hunter-Killer" and an untitled film. I really enjoyed his "Taken," even though the film was certainly no masterpiece. It sure was entertaining to watch though.

Pierre Morel in talks to direct 'Pursuit'

Filmmaker Pierre Morel is in early talks to direct Universal Pictures' upcoming action thriller "Pursuit," a film based on true events.

Variety says the project will focus on the career of conflict photographer Jason Howe, who was on an assignment in Colombia when he fell in love with a woman and soon discovered she was an assassin.

Morel, who made his directorial debut with "Banlieue 13" a few years ago, most recently helmed the Liam Neeson vehicle "Taken," which I admit I highly enjoyed. The trade reports he's currently planning a sequel.

Morel's got quite a few projects lined up, actually. He's currently doing post-prod on "From Paris With Love," and he is also attached to direct an untitled thriller for Paramount.

Daily news dose: Pierre Morel books next thriller; Christian Bale talks 'Dark Knight' sequel

Here's your dose of film news for April 28, 2009:

• Pierre Morel, director of "Taken," is set to helm Paramount's upcoming untitled Tokyo thriller, which Frank Baldwin is writing. Accoring to Variety, the plot follows a CIA operative who is ordered to embark on a final mission before his retirement. Baldwin also wrote a remake of "The House of Flying Daggers."

• Universal is gearing up to remake "Drop Dead Fred" with Russell Brand attached to star. Writing the new version is Dennis McNicholas, who co-wrote "Land of the Lost." In the original, Phoebe Cates played a young woman who's reunited with her imaginary friend after returning to her parents' home. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Don Johnson is the latest to join Nick Swardson, Stephen Dorff and Christina Ricci in Tom Brady's "Born to Be a Star," a comedy Adam Sandler co-wrote and is set to produce with Jack Giarraputo. The plot follows a nerd (Swardson) who discovers his quiet parents were famous porn stars during the 1970s. Johnson plays a porn director. (THR)

• Total Film recently talked to Christian Bale and asked him about a sequel to "The Dark Knight." Bale said, "Will we do a third movie? It's got to be the right story. You can't make something like 'The Dark Knight' and then come out with something disappointing."

'Taken' web reviews

In Pierre Morel's action thriller "Taken," Liam Neeson plays a father who stops at nothing to find his kidnapped daughter. But how effective is his battle against the bad guys? Let's find out what the Web's critics have to say:

• Katey Rich at CinemaBlend: "But all the movie really needs is Neeson and a row of henchmen for him to mow down, and as long as the action is moving, it all works fine."

• Cinematical's Eric D. Snider: "These are matters of black-and-white, with clearly defined heroes and villains, and there's nothing wrong with seeing the good guys win every now and then."

• RopeOfSilicon's Brad Brevet: "The best way to describe 'Taken' is to say it is in the same genre as other recent Fox flicks such as Hitman and Max Payne, but it does it all much, much better."

• Joblo's Arrow In The Head: "By and large, TAKEN shamelessly entertained this simpleton for an hour and half. No frills, no pretenses, just Liam Neeson mowing through human trash to get his daughter back. Nothing wrong with that!"

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Review: "Taken"

Seen on: January 30, 2009

The players: Director: Pierre Morel, Writer: Robert Mark Kamen, Luc Besson, Cast: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Anjul Nigam, Goran Kostic, Holly Valance

Facts of interest: Morel's next is "From Paris With Love" with John Travolta.

The plot: Liam Neeson stars as a former government operative who stops at nothing to find his daughter and free her from her kidnappers.

Our thoughts: Liam Neeson goes all Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer on us in Pierre Morel’s fast-paced action thriller “Taken,” and to be honest, watching him eliminate bad guy after bad guy for nearly 93 minutes is plenty of fun.

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Bloody set pics for 'From Paris With Love'

Pierre Morel's latest thriller "From Paris with Love" is still shooting, and the Bad and Ugly recently got a hold of new images of John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers from the set.

As you can see above, Meyers looks bloody and Travolta looks... scary (sort of). Based on a script by Luc Besson and Adi Hasak, the film centers on an embassy worker who encounters an American secret agent during a risky mission in the French capital.

Production for the film halted two months ago because members of the production team found ten cars belonging to Europacorp burned out by arsonists, but it looks like everything is back to normal.

Anyway, check out one still above and click here if you want to see some more.