Customer Reviews

District B13

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Set in the year of 2010, `Dictrict B13' features two no-nonsense fighters Damian and Leito in the titular crime-infested area near the city of Paris. They fight the drug-addicted kingpin and his thugs before finally saving the world too. The story of French action film `District B13' (written by Luc Besson) needs lots of suspense of disbelief even though in reality we recently witnessed the outbreak of riots in this country. Still the actions of are all first-rate, and the two leads of the film Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle are more impressive than any other famous names from the Hollywood products.

Part buddy-buddy movie features crime-fighting Damian (stunt-turned actor Cyril Raffaelli, `Kiss of the Dragon') and ex-thug Leito (David Belle), both of whom have to join forces to accomplish the missions of their own. Not much is original, I admit, as far as the script by Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri (the latter also appears as the mobster) is concerned, but we are not watching this film for the story, and you should know it.

[EYE-POPPING STUNTS] The film will grab your attention from the opening section, where Leito runs away from the thugs sent from the gangster. For incredibly agile David Belle, jumping on the rooftops from one building to the other (like Jackie Chan in `Rumbles in Bronx') is not enough. Before doing these breath-taking stunts, he actually climbs down on the wall of the building, jumping from a balcony to the one below. And that's only the beginning of the eye-popping action sequences, in which like Buster Keaton he keeps running inside and outside of the buildings, and his rhythmical movements are often so beautiful that you might forget that he is really doing a death-defying actions.

[NO WIRE, NO CGI] Cyril Raffaelli is also great, showing the martial arts skills only the real stunt persons can reveal. You just have to see their stunts that are done by the actors themselves without using any wire and special effects (that's why it was shot in Romania, where the regulations are less strict). Their stunts remind the film fans of one Thai movie `Ong-Bak,' but the stunts in this French actioner are done in a different style with more vertical movements and less bone-crunching fighting. And they are both fantastic.

This is a non-stop French action hugely entertaining with incredible actions. You may not like the preposterous story, but once these actions start, you just cannot blink a second.

One of the best action adventure movies I have ever seen. Good story, sufficient surprises and plot twists. Faced paced action and well edited. The IMDB.com reviews say it all.

The star actors are athletes displaying their abilities in the newest sport called, Parkour. It is a type of hybrid form of running and jumping in urban settings, inspired by the martial arts. All stunts were performed by the principal actors, themselves.

The English dub track is intended for a British audience, but that is not too distracting. Cool music soundtrack that adds to the suspense.

I bought this because I could not rent it. Glad I bought it. Worth the $30 or so.

What makes District B13 work is the charisma of the two protagonists, especially Leito. At first, you think he's some junkie scumbag but he doesn't use or sell the drugs, he destroys them. Not to mention that your heart goes out to him once you see his sister get snatched by the bad guys and then turned into a zombified junkie. Leito also has mad skills, jumping, punching and kicking anything that stands in his way. Even though Damien doesn't have something personal at stake like Leito (and so you root for him slightly less) but he doesn't want to see two million die if that bomb goes off. Like Leito, he's an accomplished fighter but his forte is with guns.

If District B13 feels like the premise of Escape from New York mixed with the aesthetic of Transporter, it's because Luc Besson co-wrote this film and The Transporter. And like with that film, Besson strips it down to the basic genre conventions, keeping the running time down to a lean 89 minutes. District B13 has a crisp, slick look with fast-paced, kinetic action and a thumping, pulsating electronica soundtrack that matches the visuals perfectly. This is a wonderful piece of eye candy and a lot of fun to watch if you're into these kinds of adrenaline-rush action movies.

"Making of District B13" features cast and crew members talking about how quickly the film came together. Amazingly, most of the main actors are primarily known as comedians although you wouldn't know it from watching this movie. We also get some insight into how a few of the stunts were pulled off including rehearsal footage of the stunt men practicing fight moves and choreographing elaborate stunts.

"Extended Fight Scene - Casino" presents a slightly longer, slightly more violent version of the exciting casino action sequence where Damien takes on many bad guys.

Finally, there are "Outtakes," a collection of blown lines and goofs during the fight scenes.

Those people who loved director Pierre Morel's surprise 2009 smash Taken [Blu-ray] would do well to check out his first movie DISTRICT B13, which is even more loaded with great action and stunts, plus is not as predictable. Unlike TAKEN, which takes about a third of its runtime to catch up to its title and is slow going until it does so, this film is a total rush from beginning to end and action fans will be pleased. Though the story is involving, you don't nessescarily need to understand all of the dialogue in order to understand what is going on because of its action-oriented nature, so people who are norally scared of forigen language movies shouldn't shy away from this particular title. If you do, you'll be missing a tremenously exciting romp which is refreshing because of its decided lack of much computer graphics in the action sequences.

However, this Blu-ray release is extremely questionable because the only form of subtitles on this French film are closed captions for the hearing impared, which contain unintentionally hillarious descriptions of every sound effect and physical action in the movie in addition to a translation of the dialogue. This is doubtlessly helpful for customers who are hearing impared and should be included, but should not be the only option available because it gets fairly annoying very quickly for viewers who don't need that kind of description. Because the limited theatrical release featured a perfectly normal subtitle track, its exclusion here is both puzzling and highly bothrsome. The only other option for viewing the film is a poor English dub which serves as the default soundtrack (unless you are fluent in French and can leave the subtitles completely off.) Unfortunately, even with Pierre Morel's rising popularity, this is a older release now and I highly doubt it will be corrected. I assume the regular DVD version suffers from the same problem but can't confirm that because I have never seen it in that form.

It's still a fun movie and very much worth watching if you can get past this issue, but be forwarned when making your purchasing choices. I definately watch the movie less than I would if it had a proper subtitle track.

If you crossed one of John Carpenter's Snake Plissken films with one of the early Hong Kong shoot-em ups made by John Woo and added a boat-load of Jackie Chan styled acrobatics and bone-crunching martial arts, then you might be able to imagine the incredible action set-pieces that are welded to a super-cool futuristic dystopian setting in DISTRICT 13. Anyone who likes sci fi actioners should see it. Within the first 3 minutes I was completely pulled in by the pumping techno soundtrack and the super-stylish camera-prowl thru the decayed streets. DISTRICT 13 is, hands down, one of the best action movie I've seen in the last 25 years. Check it out.

The first thing you take away from this film are the incredible action set pieces. These include some stunning fight scenes, but the most unbelievable is the parkour sequence that starts the film. If you've seen a Jackie Chan flick where he scampers up the side of a building or over a fence, you've got the idea of the type of action that constitutes parkour. Now string together dozens of those stunts as the hero runs from some thugs. See the movie for this if for no other reason. If you aren't blown away by it, you probably can rest assured that you will never like any martial arts film.

The second time I saw the film, I realized something else. The acting is great. You have not one, but two strong action leads. They are both in fantastic physical shape and fight with grace, but manage to bring a lot of depth to their characters. The villain, Taha, is efficiently ruthless and his head goon, K2, starts as a brute, but evolves through the film. The sister is great, too.

I won't spend a lot of time defending the plot. It is set in the near future and Paris has walled in some of the rougher neighborhoods like Escape From New York. There is a bomb and some sinister government machinations. That said, relatively speaking, this story line is The Godfather compared to most martial arts flicks. The movie is well paced so you aren't spending a lot of down time wondering if you should just fast forward to the next fight. Plus there is barely a scene that isn't accented by the phsyical prowess of the two leads.

The DVD has both the original French and an English dub, both in 5.1 or stereo. There are a few minutes of outakes and an extended version of the casino fight that are worth a look, but nothing incredible. The best feature is an hour long making of that has lots of behind the scenes footage and interviews. Well worth a watch if you enjoyed the movie.

I consider this to be a flawless action film (face it - more plot would have just hampered the action). Buy it, love it, you won't regret it.

This film features the guru of Parkour (or "free running" as it's commonly called in the U.S.), David Belle. The athleticism, grace, and excitement of parkour really can not be overstated. The physical prowess of Belle and the "runners" (term for those who practice parkour) is inspirational, amazing to watch, and totally enjoyable.

In addition to the eye-popping parkour, this movie is also a very interesting look into contemporary French politics and urban culture. France has its own social problems regarding racism, classism, and the condition of the ghettos just bordering Paris proper (the riots that took place in these housing projects in the Summer of 2005 could have been taken directly from B13's script).

The storyline is mostly about a detective who finds himself on the inside of the ghetto gang wars, only to find that the government has a secret plot to blow up the ghettos. He and David Belle go through a series of instances where they learn to trust one another and find the true villains behind the problems in B13. David Belle plays the good guy. He's a local who enjoys a more or less nuetral role due to his level-headedness (save for when his sexy lilttle sister gets kidnapped, catapulting him into the thick of the ghetto underworld). He's a convincing and exciting actor who feels totally natural in this role. His physique and athleticism will provide many points of pleasure for those inclined to observe such things.

Keywords for this film include: french hiphop, gangs, street fashion, parkour, underworld, drugs, pimped rides, sex, violence, corruption, politics, underworld, hiphop, urban, class warfare, terrorism, France, ghetto, arab, black, white, racism, free running

This is possibly the best cinematic depictions of the twin French martial arts Savate (French kung fu with straight kicks and flying knees) and Parkour (how to flip over the side of a building and survive) ever shot on digital video.

It's clever they managed to create an entire dark future scenario out of the recent suburb riots in Paris last year, but it does give the whole movie a social relevance (as well as an excuse for some good angry French gangster rap in the soundtrack).

If you're looking for heavyweight plot, don't bother. But anyone who would rent this movie won't be doing so for anything other than the action anyway. For that, they certainly won't be disappointed, especially during the first 5 minutes of the movie. (Not to give too much away, but that's the parkour demonstration which earned this movie international attention.)

If you like physical, non-CGI'ed stunts, this is a perfect way to spend a little under two hours. No one is taking home any awards for acting or script writing, but Raffaelli and Belle make a good buddy-flick team, and the stunts are incredible. Raffaelli's choreography is fluid and innovative, and Belle shows the viewer exactly why he's called Speed-Air-Man in France (say it fast, and you'll get the reference).

To make a not-so-long story shorter: Do-gooding ghetto dweller (Leïto/David Belle) becomes a thorn in the side of the local gang lord (Taha/Bibi Naceri), and ends up thrown in jail because the cops are corrupt. Fast forward six months, and do-gooding cop (Damien/Cyril Raffaelli) needs an escort through the hazardous B13 to recover a stolen nuclear missle. Leïto initially prefers Damien drop dead, but reluctantly teams up with him to rescue Leïto's sister Lola who was taken by Taha six months before.

Again, the plot is not the draw here; it's the action sequences that take center stage. To their credit, Bibi Naceri does an entertaining turn as the big baddie, there's ample comic relief from Tony D'Amario (who sadly passed away in 2005) as henchman #1, "K2," and Raffaelli and Belle accomplish a passable level of acting that took other action stars, for example Schwarzenegger, multiple films to achieve.

Now that we've addressed the good, onto the bad: the audio dub on this movie is HORRIBLE (yes, the adjective is deserving of all caps). My preference is for subtitles anyway, but for no reason I can discern, Magnolia closed-captioned the dub instead of *translating* the french. Merde! Also, I couldn't care less about the hideous box cover, but the menus are loud, ugly and difficult to navigate. Silver lining? At least they properly subtitled the hour long making-of bonus feature.

Should Magnolia release the 2009 sequel, I'm hoping that they scrap the audio dub altogether for a proper subtitling job and give us more extras with Raffaelli and Belle.

District B13 is a region of Paris so dangerous that the authorities decided to build a wall around it in order to segregate the "scum" from the rest of the city. However, not everyone in the district is a criminal. Leito (David Belle) and his sister Lola (Dany Verissimo) just want to live their lives like honest, law abiding citizens. So, when a bomb is stolen by a gang and taken to District B13, it is to Leito that Police Captain Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) turns in order to act as his guide within the area.

"District B13" is a classic case of style over substance that reminds me a lot of many of Jackie Chan's earlier films. The action sequences are brilliant (the opening scene is so impressive that I actually stopped the film at the end of it and watched it again), but the plot holding them together is flimsy at best. Presumably because all of the film-makers' efforts were put into choreographing the action scenes, the characters are never really developed that much and I actually found myself growing bored between these scenes. Nevertheless, the beginning of this film is great and the ending is good, and at only 85 minutes, there's not all that much between them.

This film was co-written by Luc Besson and directed by Pierre Morel, who also worked together on "Taken", although I much preferred "Taken" (the action scenes weren't as good, but the plot was more interesting). Ironically, whereas the message of "Taken" seemed to be "violence solves everything", the message of this film (which is stated by one of the characters in the final five minutes), is that "violence doesn't solve things". Go figure. Nevertheless, even though the credits assure me that Luc Besson did write this, I probably wouldn't have picked it as one of Besson's movies. It is quite different from the other Besson films that I have seen, since Besson's characters are usually better developed than this. Overall, however, this film is definitely worth watching once, it's just not something that I expect to stay in my mind for more than a day or two.