A personal aide to the U.S. ambassador in France, James Reese has an enviable life in Paris and a beautiful French girlfriend, but his real passion is his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA. Reese wants to become a higher level agent with more responsibilities. As the result of a shortage of agents in France, he is assigned as a partner to secret agent Charlie Wax. Reese's first test is to have Wax released from airport detention by the French Customs when Wax does not want to surrender the cans of his favorite energy drink. Despite the apparent triviality of an energy drink that Wax could probably purchase in Paris, Wax continues to verbally abuse French Customs until Reese places a Diplomatic Mail sticker on Wax's luggage containing the energy drink, which makes them immune from customs and quarantine requirements. Once in the car, Wax apologizes for his behavior while opening the tins and revealing the concealed pieces of his personal SIG Sauer P226 X-Five Lightweight, which he refers to as "Mrs. Jones". Wax explains that he has been sent to Paris to investigate a drug ring at least indirectly responsible for the death of a woman who happened to be the niece of the Secretary of Defense. During the investigation, which leads to a French-Chinese Triad run restaurant and eventually a Triad warehouse. Wax reveals that there was no overdose—their goal is to trace the money back to a circle of Pakistani terrorists. Evidence leads them to the terrorists, resulting in an armed confrontation in which most of the terrorists are killed. Wax and Reese learn that the terrorists plan to infiltrate the U.S. embassy with explosives hidden beneath their burkas. As they collect evidence, they find photographs of Agent Reese pinned to a wall. Ultimately, Reese learns that the terrorists are targeting a summit meeting. Wax discovers that Reese's fiancée Caroline is a "sleeper" agent who was assigned to infiltrate them. When confronted, Caroline shoots Reese in the shoulder and escapes through a window. A Volvo picks her up on the street below. Caroline attempts to detonate an explosive vest while the last remaining terrorist in the Volvo threatens a US motorcade traveling to the summit by speeding towards them, wired with explosives. Wax destroys the vehicle with an AT4rocket launcher just in time. Reese finds Caroline at the summit and attempts to dissuade her from carrying out her mission by professing his love. She attempts to detonate her vest anyway and Reese is ultimately forced to kill her. As the U.S. official from the motorcade arrives at the summit, she berates Reese for inconveniencing her, and Wax reminds Reese of the often ungrateful and ignorant people they protect. As Wax leaves Paris, Reese escorts him to his plane. Wax offers a full-time partnership. The two play a game of chess on the tarmac, placing their handguns on a utility cart, Reese revealing that he is now carrying a Desert Eagle pistol, and Wax welcomes him to the club as his partner.
The film has received mixed reviews from different critics. The film holds a 'Rotten' rating of 37% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus being "Though not without its charms—chief among them John Travolta's endearingly over-the-top performance—From Paris with Love is too muddled and disjointed to satisfy." Rolling Stone writer Peter Travers gave it one star out of four, stating, "From Paris With Love has no vital signs at all, just crushing dull repetition that makes one noisy, violent scene play exactly like the last one." A couple of reviews from SBS and Newshub criticised the film for "ludicrous" plot developments and racism.
Box office
The film opened in the US on February 5, 2010 and took $8,158,860 on its opening weekend, ranked number 3 in the charts in 2,722 theaters. The movie was open in the US until March 11, 2010, a total of 5 weeks. Its final US domestic gross was $24,077,427. It also took just over $28m internationally for a worldwide total of $52,365,407- just grossing back its $52m budget. In July 2010 Parade Magazine listed the film as number 4 on its list of "Biggest Box Office Flops of 2010."
The movie was released on DVD in the US on June 8, 2010 and sold 624,791 units for a gross of $11,085,323. It was the third biggest selling DVD in its opening week, behind Alice in Wonderland and Shutter Island, with 293,011 units sold. The movie was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on August 2, 2010.
Possible sequel
In an interview with Celebrity Examiner, Luc Besson commented that he would love to see From Paris With Love turn into a franchise with sequels. Travolta said in an interview with The Star Ledger: "We could do, ‘From London With Love,’ ‘From Prague With Love.’ This is one of the only movies that I would enjoy as a franchise. I’m not a big sequel person, but this one I would love." As of 2019, there has been no further information on the proposed sequel.
