Action Film Reviews

Film: From Paris With Love
Director: Pierre Morel
Staring: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak
Genre: Action
Release Date: 2010

A lot of people walked into this film expecting a Bourne film with Travolta. Anyone with these expectations will be disappointed. You're not going to get the gritty "realism" we've come to expect from most major action films of the noughties. I'm referring to films like the Bourne trilogy and the new James Bond films. Today they portray Bond's hand to hand combat scenes as realistic and as shocking as possible, when before Connery would simply do away with a badie with a swift karate chop to the back of the neck followed by a cheeky one-liner.

Even when we reached the eighties, lots of the action films still had a fantasy element to them. It was in this climate that a young, unknown screen writer, Shane Black, was able to sell his Lethal Weapon script for a million bucks. Today Lethal Weapon, complete with its three stooges routines, would probably be laughed at. Rightly or wrongly, it's up to you.

If you're asking yourself why all this is relevant, it's relevant because with FPWL Pierre Morel has made an action film with its heart in the 80's heyday of action films. A time when Schwarzenegger was king and Stallone was actually taken seriously. A time when the laws of physics didn't matter and when the hero could say, "It's ok, it's only a flesh wound." Now if you're a person who thinks those films died out for good reason, the chances are you won't like From Paris With Love. If you, like me, still have a yearning for the old days then you should enjoy it.

Directed by Pierre Morel (Taken, District 13), it follows James Reese (Jonathan Reece Myers), an aide to The US ambassador in France. Reese lives with his beautiful, supportive girlfriend (Kasia Smutniak) and life seems quite sweet for him. Yet Reece has ambitions of breaking away from his current duties with hopes of becoming a field agent for the CIA. When the film starts he already has a foot in the door, just a little, but he's only assigned to tasks on the lowest level. Such as, changing number plates, or planting the odd bug under a table. Being very eager to please his handler, he jumps at the chance when he's asked to come and help legendry field agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta) on his way through French Customs. This is when the film really starts moving.

Travolta is on fine form as the slightly insane career agent, and Rhys Myers doesn't let the side down as the clueless rookie. Though a little cliché at the times, the action is nicely directed and well paced throughout the film - no long boring bits. The relationship between Rhys Myers and Kasia Smutniak is convincing and actually quite sweet at times - don't tell anyone I said that.

As I said before: it's a film with one foot in the past. This is evident in the relationship between the Wax and Myers characters, which follows the tried and tested form of starting out antagonistic due to misunderstanding, and then, with understanding, you get genuine friendship. Yeah, I know, if you put it like that it sounds a little manipulative. But hey, it worked for Rigs and Murtaugh right?

Don't get me wrong, this film is far from perfect. If you like your action films realistic and gritty there's a good chance you will really not like this particular film. Some people are going to find the characterisation and plot plain stupid, and I can't really blame them for it, especially in today's climate.

In conclusion: From Paris With Love is a classic love hate film. Love, hate...it's down to you.

Rating - 7/10

Director: John McTiernan
Staring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia
Genre: Action
Release Date: 1988

Die hard, quite simply, is one of the best action films of all time - Full stop. If you've been away from Earth for the past twenty years and haven't seen this film, then you're missing out big time.

Let's start with the screenplay. Based on a book called "Nothing Lasts Forever", it flows perfectly, building tension and expertly mixing up the action with the character development. They say you can't make a good film with a bad script, I believe this to be true, so let's give credit to Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart for a quality piece of writing.

The film is about New York detective John McClain (Bruce Willis), who's come to stay with his estranged wife for the holidays with the hope of putting some normality back into his family life. The setting is the Nakatomi Plaza, a building owned by his wife's boss, Mr Takagi, a very rich Japanese business man. A staff Christmas party is underway when McClain arrives and whilst he's in a bathroom freshening up, "Terrorists" hijack the building. Initially, McClain's presence goes unnoticed due to his location and, with him being a visitor, he's not missed. What follows is an action thrill ride as McClain, using the quick wits he's picked up as a New York cop, singlehandedly does battle with the terrorists in an attempt to save his wife and the hostages.

As far as the acting goes, I believe it to be above par when usually it comes a poor second to the set pieces. Willis is great as the wise cracking New York detective, and he delivers the one-liners like he was born to do this - "Yipeekiyay mother f'#@er "(Sorry, I couldn't resist.) Alan Rickman is wonderful as cold as ice German terrorist Hans Gruber. His creepy portrayal is both unnerving and slightly amusing, but in a good way. The supporting roles are all equally strong. Reginald VelJohnson plays the supportive Sgt. Al Powell well, and William Atherton plays the slime ball TV reporter convincingly - you really do want to punch him. The only character I never did take to was McLain's wife, Ms Gennaro (Bonnie Bedelia), for some reason I always found her a little out of place but that's probably just me. All of the terrorists are menacing, and the actors do their job well.

To sum up, Die Hard is a must see. It's a film that you can bang in the DVD every other year and lose yourself for 90 minutes. If you haven't seen it then sort it out - you don't know what you're missing.

Rating 10/10

Director: James Cameron
Staring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong
Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Release Date: 1991

Another "big daddy" of the action movie genre - Terminator 2: Judgment Day. After my Die Hard review, I wanted to follow with another all time great. It didn't take more than a few seconds for T2 to pop into my head.

For those of you who by some freak event haven't seen this film, I'll give a quick recap. After failing to erase John Conner (Edward Furlong) from existence by killing his mother, Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), in the first film, Skynet tries again, this time attempting to kill him as an adolescent boy. To carry out the mission, they send a hyper advanced prototype, model T-1000 (Robert Patrick), an android assassin with the ability to morph and re-shape its structure making it virtually indestructible. Conner's only protection is an obsolete cyborg, the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), reprogrammed and sent back by his future self to keep him alive. Incidentally, the T-800 is the same model of cyborg who tried to kill his mother in the original film.

Written and directed by movie genius James Cameron, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a direct sequel to the 1984 film "Terminator", and holds the rare distinction of being considered superior to its prequel. This is not surprising considering the amount of skill and time that went into making this film - though great, the first film was shot on a relatively small budget. The computer generated effects, provided by Industrial Light & Magic, are stunning. Nobody, and I mean nobody! had ever seen anything like this before. Even today, nearly twenty years on, they still hold up. The first action scene involving the T1000, with the liquid metal effects, just blew me away when I first saw it back in 91.

The effects are no gimmick though. In my opinion, James Cameron is one hell of a script writer and T2 certainly doesn't disprove this. Whilst managing to continue the theme of the first film, he opens everything up, expanding the story and fine tuning the original characters. Sarah Connor is a fine example of Cameron's character development. Gone is the flaky waitress, in her place we get a hardened phsych patient struggling to cope with, quite literally, the weight of the world on her shoulders. The relationship between Schwarzenegger and Furlong is nicely done too; The irony of a machine becoming a father figure to the human who will eventually lead the fight against the machines is a clever angle. All the main characters get memorable introductions, setting everything up and building tension for the moment when it all kicks off. Like the first film T2 is, when you get down to it, a classic chase movie. But it's the idea of having someone, or something, coming after you who absolutely will not stop until you or they are destroyed that makes these films special.

Terminator 2 was a huge hit at the box office and with critics alike. It's the film that cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger as the biggest action star on the planet, and raised the bar for all action films that followed in its wake. It has been referenced in all aspects of popular culture and contains quotes, such as "Hasta la vista, baby", which have gone down in legend.

With Terminator 2, James Cameron created one of the best action films of all time. If you don't have it in your DVD collection you're nuts.

Rating - 10/10