A couple of weeks ago we posted a trailer for the sequel to District B13, the French action movie directed by Pierre Morel and produced by Luc Besson. Morel did not direct the sequel, however, because he had his hands full with the Liam Neeson thriller Taken, and another upcoming movie called From Paris With Love starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. It seemed like he was moving on to bigger and better things.

Well this week a rough teaser trailer for From Paris With Love found its way online, and boy does it look absolutely atrocious. Going from the slick and stylized fight choreography of District B13 to a cheesefest like this is most definitely a step backwards, if you ask me. The only real “action” visible in the video is a poorly CG’d rocket launcher blowing up a car, followed by John Travolta deadpanning, “Welcome to Paris, baby!”. And what’s the deal, is he some energy drink overlord or something? I guess you’d have reason to be worried about just about anything Travolta is involved in lately, but this looks like it will top his bad guy performances in Battlefield Earth, Swordfish, and The Punisher combined. To be fair, I’ve heard some good things about the movie Taken, and this particular trailer for From Paris With Love seems to only focus on Travolta. But right about now that District B13 sequel is looking like it would have been the smarter move, don’t you think? From Paris With Love is expected to hit theatres sometime in 2009; check out the trailer below.