Review of District B13 (2004) by Brock R — 20 Jul 2009

This movie is a great action movie for a very particular set of individuals: Those that aren't afraid of subtitles in action movies. Sure, this film is eye candy, but it's filling! Like eating pasta! Plots are mainly a secondary or tertiary function in an action film, and this is no exception. As much as we like to feel this way, Americans didn't invent movies. Americans are like the Romans: The Romans appropriated other peoples ideas and made them much better. Well, this is the French repaying us the same favor by making a better action film. Sure, it's in French, but they've given us baguettes, dijon and French cooking technique, so they can't be all bad. The plot here is really kind of secondary, but basically it goes: Character introductions and development, introduction of conflict, many sick action sequences, action sequence climax, feel good or leave bad guy wanting revenge/resolution, followed by a plot twist to leave room for a sequel. I'm happy to report that this movie follows the formula.

As with any action film, the ancillary characters are added color, and this one doesn't disappoint. I find "Kah Deux" (or "K2") to be a great and hilarious character. He sets up his entire personality in a few frames. Now that's acting!!

Finally, I suppose I should address the "reason de etre" for this film: Parkour. All I can say about this is that after I watched this, I was escorted off the local campus by security for attempting parkour on the various buildings. I never thought to jump off of a building and live! Now that's a great film!