-Capsule reviews of films opening this week:
"From Paris with Love" — As 2008's "Taken" turned Liam Neeson into an action star, director Pierre Model again attempts the feat with two distinctly un-tough actors: John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The Rock needn't worry about his day job. With a shaved head, thick goatee and a leather jacket, Travolta resembles a biker from Soho. He's Charlie Wax, a brutal but chatty CIA agent. Meyers is James Reese, an aspiring spy who's teamed with Wax in a race to prevent a terrorist plot. Rhys, more hollow-cheeked model than gun-totting tough, plays Reese as quickly adapting to the carnage — he's from a hard New York neighborhood, after all, he boasts. (One foresees South Bronx crowds cackling in the theaters.) The bodies pile up, but "Paris" never feels like anything more than action movie dress-up. R for bloody violence throughout, drug content, pervasive language and brief sexuality. 95 minutes. One star out of four.
— Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer
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"Frozen" — This thinnest of horror tales asks the question, what would you do if you were stranded on a ski lift, forgotten and left to freeze after the resort staff goes home? It's an utter bore watching as writer-director Adam Green struggles and fails to keep his one-note idea interesting for the length of a feature film. There's maybe enough material here for a short film, so Green pads things with a lot of dreary scenes of chattering teeth and chattering characters as Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore and Kevin Zegers share thoughts of their plight and the odd childhood anecdote as frostbite sets in. Since three people shivering on a ski lift would be about as action-packed as "Waiting for Godot," Green also adds wolves — you know, the sort of ravenous wolves that hang out at all the finer New England ski resorts waiting for dalliers on the slopes that they can hunt down and devour. Need we say more? R for some disturbing images and language. 93 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
— David Germain, AP Movie Writer
