Admit One 2/5

Another week of polar opposites with the new action movie from Pierre Morel, who gave us Taken last year, and the sappy teen girl bait that is Dear John.

From Paris with Love

Starring: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Myers

Directed by: Pierre Morel

Plot: An aide to the US Ambassador to France is also a low level CIA operative and gets his first big assignment when he is teamed up with a crazy loose cannon special agent to stop a terrorist plot in Paris.

Rotten Tomatoes Freshness: 33%

Critic Consensus: “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.”

Dear John

Starring: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins, Henry Thomas

Directed by: Lasse Hallstrom

Plot: A special forces soldier and a college student fall for each other over spring break and exchange letters when the soldier has to return to active duty.

RT Freshness: 30%

Critic Consensus: “Built from many of the same ingredients as other Nicholas Sparks tearjerkers, Dear John suffers from its cliched framework, as well as Lasse Hallstrom’s curiously detached directing.”