James Reese poses as the assistant of a US Ambassador in Paris, but in actuality, he is a CIA agent. Unfortunately, he is restless, as he is not given many opportunities to go on missions. He's finally given a chance to do something, but he is bummed to find out he's been given a partner: the irritable, angry, and seemingly loose cannon Charlie Wax. Task #1: go rescue Wax from Customs at the airport, where he is being detained and causing trouble. Apparently, he doesn't want to have his energy drink thrown out. After Reese tries to reason with him, he simply claims diplomatic immunity and carries the cans out on Wax's behalf. In the car leaving the airport, Wax opens the cans, revealing the various parts of his big handgun which he smuggled onto the plane. He tells Reese that they are hunting for some Pakistani terrorists, whose plan is unclear at first. After a big gun battle in which they kill many of the bad guys, Reese and Wax find out they plan to blow up the embassy, using their burqas to conceal bombs strapped to them. They still don't know the particulars of when, until Reese sees his own photo in the terrorist's lair. They realize that the target is a peace meeting with the ambassadors, and, even more shocking, they deduce that Reese's fiancee is a spy for the terrorists. When they try to go detain her, she shoots Reese and makes her escape. Reese must race with Wax to the embassy to beat his fiancee there and prevent a deadly explosion.
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Best part of story, including ending:
It's a passable genre flick, with some decent action, some fun shootouts, and John Travolta aggressively hamming it up every second he's on the screen.
Best scene in story:
Wax's entrance scene in Customs, in which he curses up a storm and throws a hissy fit over something as silly as cans of energy drink, is a lot of fun to watch.
Opinion about the main character:
Reese is not terribly interesting, but he's a fine straight man for Wax to bounce his madness off of. The movie's success doesn't hinge upon us liking him.
