From Paris With Love

"From Paris With Love" follows trigger-happy agent Charlie Wax (Travolta) as he leads rookie James Reese (Rhys Meyers) on a high-speed shooting frenzy through the Parisian underworld during a high-stakes CIA mission to foil a terrorist attack planned on the city. Before Reese realizes he's bitten off more than he can chew, the duo discovers that he's a target of the same crime ring planning the attack. With only 48 hours to save the city, there is no turning back and only one deadly way out. (Gary Reber)

Special features include picture-in-picture commentary with Director Pierre Morel; four featurettes: "The Making Of 'From Paris With Love'" (HD 26:42), "Spies, Spooks And Special Ops: Life Under Cover" (HD 16:06), "Secrets Of Spy Craft: Inside The International Spy Museum" (HD 04:26) and "Charlie Wax's Gun Locker" (HD 02:40:25); a Friend or Foe Trivia Game; the theatrical trailer; LG-Live functionality; plus a DVD release of the film and a digital copy.

The 1080p AVC picture is wonderful, with a natural cinematic feel. Fleshtones are naturally rendered. Contrast is generally good, though, exterior scenes are slightly pushed toward white, which creates desaturated visuals. In controlled interiors contrast is excellent, with deep, solid blacks and revealing shadow delineation. In this respect, the imagery is inconsistent is balance. Still, the overall impression is a pleasing experience. The action is fast paced, as is the editing. Colors are naturally hued, with some scenes exhibiting rich and warm hues. Resolution is generally excellent and revealing in fine detail, especially during close-ups of facial features and object textures. Overall, this is a dynamic picture with, at times, effective cinematography. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 7.1-channel soundtrack is excellent, with the additional channels proving a larger holosonic® presence, but the added side channels are positioned to the back sides of the sweet spot listening position, not to the sides as they should be. Thus, unless you switch outputs, the normal surrounds in a 5.1-channel mix will be at the sides, not to the back sides. Unfortunately, the creative community, the studios, and the equipment manufacturers, have not dictated a spatial loudspeaker setup standard. Our preferred 7.1-channel setup is a perfect circle, with each full-range loudspeaker location equidistant from the sweet spot and equidistant from each other along the perimeter of the 360-degree circle. In this arrangement, the added mid-left and mid-right surrounds convey added surround envelopment and dimensionality. Unfortunately, some 7.1-channel soundtracks are produced with the added channels not at the sides but behind the sweet spot listening position, which then creates positioning problems for normal 5.1-channel presentations, with the surround loudspeakers located to the back sides of the prime listening position, including for surround music reproduction. The original theatrical sound design provides a center back surround channel. This channel is not present in a discrete form in this production. The sound design is at times intense, with system-threatening loud SPL in all channels. Sound effects are effectively positioned in the surround channels and often panned for dramatic effect. The entire soundfield from time to time is fully energized, with sound effects directionalized, such as intense firearm action. Bass extension is deep and solid, extending to well-below 25 Hz in the .1 LFE channel. The orchestral and rock-tinged music score is well recorded, with a wide and deep soundstage that wraps around into the surrounds. The sound is impressively dimensional and layered, as well as directional. The music is percussive and dynamic. Dialogue is nicely presented, with good spatial integration and dimension. The soundfield sounds impressively huge and expansive. This is an exciting soundtrack that sounds dynamic, with effective low-level atmospheric sound effects that enhance the holosonic envelopment. (Gary Reber)