Review of District B13 (2004) by Nic B — 15 May 2010

Set in the not-so-distant future of....2010 (to this film's credit, it was released in 2004), gangsters and criminals overrun France to the point that areas are blocked off and made into districts.

The worse one of them all belongs to District B13, where the city's biggest drug criminal resides. A major thorn in his side is straight and narrow hoodlum David Belle, who purposely botches a major drug deal and has the entire gang running after him, which allows for the excuse for him to show off his amazing Parkour skills, an extreme jumping sport that packs a big adrenaline-rushed scene of action in many parts of this film.

Anyways, the gang kidnaps his sister, he saves her and gets the back guy and brings him to the closing down police station, who buckle under pressure and send the bad guy back along with the sister, leaving Belle to rot in jail.

Now, said gang has stolen a neutron bomb and top undercover cop Cyril Raffaelli is sent in alongside Belle to show him around. The two squabble and turn the film into a small buddy picture, but that doesn't stop them from racing against time to stop the bomb from detonating.

It's no surprise that the bigger picture shows a potential conspiracy by high government officials looking to destroy District B13. For a film that barely reaches 85 minutes, there's plenty of story to tell, and the action scenes and choreography are top notch.

There's a good mixture of comedy throughout the film, but overall, I'd say this lovely French ditty outperforms a lot of the lackluster mainstream action films that plague US cinemas more often than not.

Overall, District B13 is a winner.