Cinéma du look auteur Luc Besson, the creative force behind such stylishly memorable features as La Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional, hasn't directed a film since 2006's Arthur and the Invisibles, but that hasn't deterred his creative enterprises. Slicker than most with the production of his films, while balancing a healthy amount of character appeal with in-your-face action, Besson, as producer, has been the driving force behind the Transporter films, Taken, and the District 13 series, and now, he has another offering to entice hyper-kinetic starved males to their local theater with: From Paris With Love.

Directed by Pierre Morel (Taken, District 13) and written by Besson, the narrative is constructed around the malapert character of Reese (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who is only a simple assistant to the American ambassador to France but dreams of being a super spy (hence the tongue-cheek-references to 007 in the title and slick poster art). The problem is that Reese is so NOT the typical secret agent type: he studies, plays and wins at the slow-moving game of chess, he's obsessively organized, and is quite happy with his girlfriend; even the minimal CIA-driven jobs he is assigned seem to go amusingly off track. With his new assignment; however, partner to undercover operative Charlie Wax (a rather hulking bulldog-looking John Travolta), Reese gets to see just how super smooth and super secret his double-0 skills are as Wax's cat-and-mouse chase for a dangerous top-notch cocaine ring turns into a ludicrous hunt for deadly suicide bombers who are, ultimately, inside the halls of the embassy.

Travolta is every bit the comical lunatic in this film; a herculean, if purely one-sided, acting effort from the star; it's a Chili Palmer meets Vincent Vega type of role mixed with healthy doses of crank betwixt the two characters. Travolta plays his character as if he has recently broken out from the nearest asylum undetected seemingly with the prime objective of blowing the hell out of Paris... every last bit of it. With all the outlandish on-screen action, it makes sense that Travolta's character should also be completely out of his mind and, if you - as an audience member are happy with the quick pacing of the explosions, then you should be fine with that fact. Travolta's character is a ticking time bomb; he's also very in-tune with what the kickboxing criminals are up to and, unbelievably, knows what they will do next and what his next bull-in-the-china-shop maneuver should be... all met with Meyers' mouth wide open in a constant shock-and-awe reaction.

Indeed, From Paris With Love is an out-right spectacle; it's cheeky entertainment that is full of mindless violence and inane sequences that serve as its stitched-together storyline, but it knows that and doesn't betray that reality with supposed intellect or moral ramblings. Delivering on the promise in its trailer to be self-referential and kineticly-fueled, Morel keeps the action glossy, somewhat European, very Besson-like and very, very enjoyable. Morel, as a director, has yet to show his own style but he never once tips the film into the holier-than-thou backyard of American director Michael Bay with portentous attitudes and forged significance. This is breezy Saturday matinee material that doesn't take itself seriously and Meyers, Travolta, and Morel, to their credit, know how to make it speed along at full-throttle and let the film be one hell of a cool ride.

{pgomakase}