Review of District B13 (2004) by Dean M — 21 Jun 2011

Awesome non-stop action, acrobatic, martial arts and apocalypse madness French film I ever saw since Hong Kong and Thailand movies. Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle are fantastic in their own fight and acrobatic scenes that surprised me and became exciting to watch.

Watching Belle escape from an apartment building while chased by thugs is like watching poetry in motion. The movements are so graceful and fluid, and the things he does are amazing, because it is very evident that he's performing the stunts himself and that there's no safety equipment involved. He scales the sides of buildings 20 stories up, he jumps from rooftop to rooftop, he even slips past thugs in a narrow hallway by bouncing up the walls. And not to be outdone, Raffaelli has some great martial arts scenes, especially a long sequence in a backroom casino.

The whole ghetto atmosphere works really well. Concrete and poverty works fine as scenery. The spectacular stunts are real, not done with special effects. The direction and the story are also good, hooking the attention until the very last scene.

I recognized Raffaelli who appeared as the villian in Kiss of the Dragon and Die Hard 4.0 (aka Live Free or Die Hard), he should be the next new Jean-Claude Van Damme.