As long is it’s not from France… Oh wait.
The Flick
James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) leads an awesome life. He’s got a smokin’ hot girlfriend, he’s an aide for the US ambassador and he moonlights as a low level CIA operative. Not content with his already great life, he asks the CIA for more exciting work. After planting a bug for his first real assignment, he’s given a new assignment and reluctantly, a partner. Reece soon discovers that Charlie Wax (John Travolta) is everything he is not; a foul mouthed, cocky American agent with a total disregard for the rules.
Wax’s "shoot first and ask questions later" approach does not sit well with Reece and he realizes all too soon that he’s wrapped up in a lot more than he can handle. Thankfully, Wax is more than capable of handling everything that’s thrown at them and soon they find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy that’s all too close to home for Reece. In a race against time to stop a terrorist attack, Reece must change his safe way of thinking and make an ultimate sacrifice in order to stop the threat.
For the uneducated few, director Pierre Morel is the same man responsible for the epic Liam Neeson flick Taken. Knowing that alone got me salivating toward this movie. The same pulse pounding action present in his previous directing role is found here in spades and the unlikely combination of Travolta’s Wax and Rhys Meyers's Reece keep things interesting. The on-screen chemistry between the two unlikely partners is fresh and creates a lot of great moments. You can see each of their own dynamics change throughout the movie and it’s something that is missing from a lot of similar partner/buddy cop films.
My only real complaint about From Paris with Love is that it’s incredibly predictable. I was able to guess each small twist and turn throughout this one with ease. Each time a new character was introduced, I knew exactly what role they would play in the end. I didn’t see a lot of movie stereotypes here, but it was easier to foresee the events unfolding. Regardless, you’ll be surprised in some of the scenes and the action and suspense throughout more than makes up for its ease in readability.
For our original theatrical release review, click here.
Audio/Video
Lionsgate has done a great job on the audio and video presentation of From Paris with Love on Blu-ray. It’s presented in 1080P high definition 16X9 widescreen format (2.35:1) with a 7.1 DTS HD Master audio with a French 5.1 Dolby Digital option. The transfer is really sharp here and colors are strong throughout, especially during the tense final scene. I noticed some slight graininess in some of the darker palettes, but not enough to change my opinion of how great this film looks. The sound is equally impressive and the tense moments will really pound out your speakers. It definitely has the potential to shake the house.
Special Features
Lionsgate has also done a fantastic job with this release by offering a lot of extra content that fans will certainly love. From Paris with Love on Blu-ray comes as a two disc digital-copy collection with the main feature along with special features on the first disc and a standard definition digital copy of the film on the 2nd disc. Special features include:
- Picture in Picture Commentary with Director Pierre Morel
- The Making of From Paris With Love featurette
- Spies, Spooks and Special Ops: Life Under Cover featurette
- Secrets of Spy Craft: Inside the International Spy Museum featurette
- Charlie Wax’s Gun Locker featurette
- Friend or Foe Trivia Game
- Lionsgate Live online access
- Theatrical Trailer
The making-of featurette runs about 27 minutes and shows off a great deal of what went on behind the scenes. It covers everything from cast interviews to acting styles to how stunts were performed. It’s pretty robust and offers a lot of info on the film – definitely worth watching. The picture-in-picture commentary is similar to the Maximum Movie Mode that Warner Bros uses and overall it’s pretty cool, but Pierre Morel has an accent that is occasionally hard to understand during some of the scenes.
The Spies, Spooks and Special Ops featurette runs 16 minutes and provides some real-world information on how spies operate and the tools they use. This short feature is by far the coolest extra on the disc. Real-life CIA Agents offers insight into how real spy work takes place and how the CIA operates. The very short Secrets of Spy Craft featurette shows off some of the spy tools used throughout history. It’s surprising to see how similar these items are to the crazy stuff James Bond used in all those movies. It’s another great addition to the already robust amount of features on the disc.
The Friend or Foe Trivia game plays alongside the movie and allows you to answer questions related to the movie or geography of the area. A countdown timer displays as the movie runs and using the remote control, you select an answer from the available list. The Charlie Wax’s Gun Locker featurette is an interactive menu showing off all of the weapons he used throughout the film. The extra online features are what you’d expect like ringtones, pics, etc and offer slight expansions on some of the material present.
Overall
From Paris With Love’s mix of action, suspense and light comedy work extremely well here and will merit plenty of repeat viewings. The incredible list of special features offer a lot of watch-worthy material that fans of the main feature will eat up. Lionsgate has created a gem with this one. It offers everything that one could hope for in a summer Blu-ray release.
ComicsOnline gives From Paris With Love on Blu-ray 4.5 out of 5 bald Travoltas
Buy From Paris With Love on Blu-ray at Amazon.com now.
Keep it here at ComicsOnline.com for more Blu-ray reviews and everything geek pop culture.
