John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers Team Up in "From Paris with Love"

Now available on DVD and Blu-ray, From Paris with Lovecontains the same onscreen chemistry that made the early "Lethal Weapon" movies so enjoyable. Playing spies with different approaches to their jobs, John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers complement each other perfectly, making this an extremely satisfying buddy movie.

Travolta's character calls the shots in From Paris with Love

Meyers plays James Reece, the well-dressed, polite personal assistant to the United States Ambassador to France. Reece has aspirations, though, of becoming a full-fledged CIA operative, and he uses his position to perform small tasks for the CIA. A mysterious voice on his cell phone gives Reece his instructions, which he always follows perfectly.

Reece desperately wants to move up the CIA ladder, and he gets his chance when Special Operative Charlie Wax (Travolta) comes to Paris. Foul-mouthed and politically incorrect, the brash American agent does things his own way, ignoring all the rules of polite society. Wax is in France on a mission of international importance, and the somewhat jittery Reece is now his partner.

The From Paris with Love DVD comes fully loaded

In addition to the original theatrical trailer and optional audio commentary from director Pierre Morel, the From Paris with Love DVD packs a couple of surprises:

• Secrets of Spy Craft: Inside the International Spy Museum. Throughout From Paris with Love, Charlie Wax and James Reece use intriguing spy gadgets, including wafer-sized listening devices and a fiber optic camera. Secrets of Spy Craft, a documentary available on the DVD, offers a brief tour of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., the archive that houses actual spy gadgets and gizmos. Best exhibits in the museum: a remote tracer hidden inside a fake piece of dog poop and a display honoring the Trojan Horse, a classic spy gadget that has since become a part of history.

• The making of From Paris with Love. Featuring interviews with John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and director Pierre Morel, this mini From Paris with Love documentary goes behind the scenes. One area of interest here is a detailed explanation of why Travolta agreed to shave his head for the key role of Charlie Wax. Both Travolta and director Morel discuss the reasons why such a dramatic physical transformation was necessary to make the character work.

The behind-the scenes look at the making of From Paris with Love also offers a fairly technical look and how many of the car chases and explosive action sequences were films. Although the actual film only runs for 93 minutes, it is obvious that each scene requires hours, even days, to set up properly. Viewers even get to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers discussing his character's reactions in one particular scene.

• Spies, Spooks and Special Ops: Life Under Cover. The best feature on the DVD, Spies, Spooks and Special Ops contains interviews with actual undercover agents who offer their take on what is real in From Paris with Love. Surprisingly enough, Charlie Wax, Travolta's over-the-top Special Ops character, is more real than most people want to believe. The veteran agents in this mini-documentary say that the government do call in people like Wax who can "kick butt and take names."

Spies, Spooks and Special Ops also looks at "Sexpionage," the technique where agents are seduced by operatives from other countries. Although agents are well-trained, the veteran operatives do admit that young men and women can and will fall in love while on duty for the government.

• Sound and visuals. Available with English and Spanish subtitles, the From Paris with Love soundtrack is recorded in English in 5.1 Dolby Digital Ex, which offers 5 channels of sound plus one additional channel for low-frequency noises. Though not the most powerful Dolby format on the market, 5.1 does give the home presentation of From Paris with Love sufficient kick for the den or family room.

From Paris with Love, rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, drug content, pervasive language and brief sexuality, is available on DVD. The movie has a running time of 93 minutes.

Resources:

http://www.spymuseum.org/