This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

An Exercise In Nonsense

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Look, I wasn't expecting much here. I wasn't expecting to think, to feel, to experience something "cinematic" that would warrant a review. I just wanted to be entertained. 6.5 rating, aging Travolta, Besson's name attached...how bad could it be?And it's watchable...for a while. Travolta cusses, fusses, and murders his way through a loosely plotted first half. (The other guy is functionally useless except as a rare barometer of sanity when he whines about all their rampaging and carnage.) The action scenes are so goofy they could almost be parody. With some fun plot twists and maybe a bit of courage (not to be a xenophobic, sexist sewage-clogger), this could have gone somewhere satisfying. But the last act completely ruins it, turning it into the kind of film thugs would watch to get pumped up before going out and committing hate crimes.In actuality, your average American action film viewer in the era of Trump will find this enjoyable. Hence the 6.5 rating. That's the saddest part of all.

This is the kind of action movie where the filmmakers make the pace and the action set pieces so furious that, if their efforts pay off, the viewer won't be stopping to think about how preposterous the whole thing is. And it works, at least to a degree. The movie doesn't offer us anything we haven't seen before. But it's all heavily stylized and reasonably intense.Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays James Reese, the assistant to the American Ambassador to France (Richard Durden). James also moonlights as an errand boy for the C.I.A., doing things like changing license plates, all in the hope that someday he'll get a big time operative job with the Agency. The assignment that could earn him that honour is to work with a goofball loose cannon agent named Charlie Wax (John Travolta). Wax involves the increasingly flustered Reese in a non-stop series of escapades, all in the name of avenging the death of the niece of the Secretary of Defense. At least, that's the b.s. story handed to Reese at the beginning.A number of Paris locations are well utilized in this rather snazzy bit of entertainment. It may not really have a brain, but director Pierre Morel ("Taken") and idea man Luc Besson do their able best to keep the audience engaged, and guffaw at some of the sillier moments (Wax actually makes Reese carry around a vase full of cocaine). The frenetic chase sequence in which Wax leans out of a car window to aim a rocket launcher at his quarry is exciting and silly in about equal measure.Most viewers will probably say that the big "twist" was painfully obvious, right from the start, and truthfully it's not exactly hard to figure out, but the Reese character is understandably in a level of denial about the whole thing.Polish actress Kasia Smutniak is appealing as Reese's girlfriend, but the movie truly belongs to *both* Travolta and Meyers. Meyers's job is to basically do a lot of *reacting* and function as a somewhat realistic centre, while Travolta, sporting a bald head, is afforded the opportunity to chew the scenery in an agreeable fashion.Clearly Morel and company just couldn't resist that "Pulp Fiction" reference.Six out of 10.

...whenever he is out of control and in charge of his world, it's hard not to like him. He's smug, violent loud and American in a world that despises all of that to which we embrace. I don't think snobs would enjoy this movie, as it boils down all your most ridiculous fears about terrorism, drugs, and gangs into the simplest form of targets. It's not for the intellectual, it's for venting. And if you approach it with that idea of fun, you can go along with the outrageous set up.I absolutely had fun watching this film. Pierre Morel is very capable of stunt coordination without it just being non-sensical. Everything is amp'd up but plausible. He balances it out with a warm look at Paris. And it's idiosyncratic characters. He stretches the love of its people and also the things that drive him nuts (bureaucracy).Not so when Travolta comes in like a bull and takes charge. It's a cartoon to be sure.

James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is an aide to the U.S. Ambassador in Paris. He does assignments for the CIA and hopes to get into special ops. After planting a bug in a french minister's office, he's given another task to pick up Charlie Wax (John Travolta) at the airport. He has to run out on a special dinner with his girlfriend Caroline (Kasia Smutniak). Charlie is a manic strange angry loud-mouthed agent. He takes James on a wide ride starting with shooting up a Chinese restaurant.I really don't like John Travolta's overacting cartoon character. It's that simple and I don't really like JRM's character either. This is too ridiculous in a bad way. It made me roll my eyes once too often. This is trying to be that stylish action movie but it really doesn't achieve anything other than a lot of gunplay. And JRM carrying around that vase just looks stupid.