Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

From Paris with Love
2010
*
Director: Pierre Morel
Cast: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak, Richard Durden, Amber Rose Revah

The personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France runs occasional errands for the CIA. One day he gets to do some real spy work when he's asked to assist an eccentric field operative. This agent is a loose cannon who shoots his way through Paris. He kills roughly 30 Chinamen and a dozen Pakistanis, by which stage it's still unclear what the film is actually about. One moment the duo investigates a drug ring, the next they pursue a terrorist cell. Monotonous action scenes follow one another, but the story doesn't make any sense at any point on any level. Pierre Morel's previous film, Taken, which was also co-scripted by Luc Besson, set a new benchmark for racism, xenophobia and hand-to-hand killing in modern mainstream cinema. This time the body count is a notch higher, and once again any person not in possession of a U.S. passport is untrustworthy scum.