Movie Review: Focus World's 'Puerto Ricans in Paris'

Puerto Ricans in Paris
Director: Ian Edelman
Writers: Neil Shah & Ian Edelman
Starring: Luis Guzmán, Edgar Garcia, Alice Taglioni, Rosario Dawson and Rosie Perez
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language including some sexual references
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NYPD detectives LUIS (Luis Guzmán) and EDDIE (Edgar Garcia) visit Paris to help a gorgeous French designer COLETTE (Alice Taglioni) catch the black market thief who’s ripped off her new handbag design. While Luis’ girlfriend VANESSA (Rosario Dawson) and Eddie’s wife GLORIA (Rosie Perez) remain in New York, the hopelessly unhip odd couple stumbles through a glamorous high-fashion world brimming with charming cafes, wild nightclubs and corporate treachery.

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This week's film adventure took me to Paris, if only on the big screen. I was drawn to Puerto Ricans in Paris by the interesting premise.  Culture shock, in its most harmless form, is usually hilarious.  

I didn't know it was a cat and mouse detective caper. I love capers. When the movie started to develop, I had high hopes that the end product would be a funny cop caper.  Puerto Ricans in Paris wasn't a bad film, but it wasn't great, either. If I had to give it a one word description, I would say it was cute, no more and no less. 

The film starts with a bang. The opening sequence had action and comedy. After that initial jolt, I was almost let down by the rest of the movie. It wasn't supposed to be an action film. I'm pretty sure I knew that. It's just when the movie started with a fun action sequence, I wanted there to be more action. 

This is a comedy. The funny bits in the movie are a constant, but it was cute comedy. There was nothing too deep, thought-provoking, wry or biting about any of the punch lines. 

There are no complaints about the cast. I had never seen Edgar Garcia on-screen before and he did not disappoint. He made a great duo with Luis Guzman.  Guzman is a great character actor.  He played a great fish out of water. 

I wished that the movie had utilized Paris more in the movie. I mean, it's Paris. If a film production crew is going to travel all the way there, I would think that the city would actually be in the film. Other than a few moving shots, Paris was missing. 

At the end of the ninety-minute run time, I wasn't sad that I had say through the film.  It wasn't time wasted. It's a solid piece of film.  I just think that I would have preferred to wait to catch it on DVD or VOD.  If you hope to catch Puerto Ricans in Paris, it both opened in theaters and became available on VOD on June 10th. 

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