In the latest installment of Turn It Up Tuesday, had some fun calling Little Steven to the curb, albeit 25 years after the fact, over not knowing (or caring) about the United States' many instrumental roles in bringing goodness to the world's occasional evil. Now, however, after finally seeing From Paris with Love, the "why are we always on the wrong side" sentiment needs some borrowing.

First, why, why, why is it only Luc Besson who seems to get what the Hollywood assjacks apparently cannot fathom, that radical Muslims can -- gulp! and a shocka! -- be portrayed for the life-hating scumbags they are??? Second, with the movie produced by the same team which brought the world Taken, how did Paris sink so miserably at the box office? Was Avatar still sucking, er, sucking so many action-minded audiences into theatres en masse? Were people reading more reviews like Christian Toto's and less like Carl Kozlowski's? Not checking either at that time (sorry, Christian), God knows what I hemmed and hawed about in avoiding it in the theatre. Note to self: "From the makers of Taken" henceforth equals seeing on the big-screen, no questions asked or excuses good enough.

Whatever the case,  just had a helluva blast watching it, a few mere hours after having a ball with The A-Team movie to boot. Travolta strutting around with his Vincent Vega confidence and, like Liam Neeson in both Taken and The A-Team, pulling off some damn cool and ass-kicking stunts for a guy in his 50s (unlike Christian, I totally dug the "Royale with cheese" cheese). Jonathan Rhys-Meyers pretty impressive, too, feeding off Travolta's energy and his character coming more and more out of his stuffy shirt as the movie progressed (yes, ladies, also ever-so-literally with that shirt thing). Was it as good as Taken? No, but not much in the last few years can make that claim, so slightly unfair to judge by that standard. With all the unabashed and worthily intolerant treatment of its Muslim villains, plus a speed-demon car chase worthy of Bullitt The Blues Brothers Ronin To Live and Die in L.A., incredibly worth the only-90 minute running time, though. With such an obvious made-for-sequel ending, if only it would have done better at the box office.

Oh, has this most excellent casting choice going for it, too:

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