District B13, French SciFi Kung Fu Powerwalking
The French have given us many great things. Sophie Marceau. French Fries (briefly Freedom Fries but who’s counting), French Toast (also, briefly, Freedom Toast). Sophie Marceau. Jacques Custeau. Snobbiness. And yes, Sophie Marceau.
District B13, sadly, does not have Sophie Marceau. What it does have is 1 pretty awesome chase scene, and some typical “Evil government scheme to blow up the poor” plotlines. District B13 is for people that aren’t quite sure if they want anarchy or just mayhem, and serves up a seedy underworld which is the district that our story is set in.
Here’s the basics. Our (first) hero, Leito, is a doer-of-good in the wrong neighborhood. Why he’s a doer-of-good, well, nobody quite knows, except that he is. He’s out to get the drugs off the streets of District B13, and our arch nemesis, Taha, wants to make everything bad. The tricky part is that District B13, set a few years in the future, is a totally contained pseudo-prison in the center of Paris. It’s not an actual prison, but it’s a ghetto that’s been fenced in and has police standing guard at all times. But remember, this is not a prison. Giant walls, guns pointed inwards, non prison.
Leito, fortunately, is like a freaking grasshopper. The best part of the movie is the first 10 minutes, where Leito is chased by a band of thugs through the slums of District B13, essentially only on foot. He hops around walls, he scampers up sheer ledges, he leaps 4 stories down rooftops, etc. It’s actually a really well choreographed scene, and the filming is done in such a way that you can actually enjoy the sheer athleticism put on display.
Sadly, the rest of the movie just drags. Fortunately, it doesn’t drag for very long: District B13 is only 85 minutes long. We get a second action hero, a super cop, and of course a horde of bumbling thugs to pummel. Oh, and somewhere along the line is a neutron bomb and a villainous government conspiracy. I probably wasn’t supposed to tell you that, but frankly the surprise is that the producers of this movie actually thought you would be.
Moral of the story: If you want a cool chase scene, tune in, and then once that scene is over play this in the background while you do something else. Like, download pictures of Sophie Marceau.
douglas.nerad
on January 4th, 2008
The style of movement that David Bell (Leito) is doing is called Parkour, developed by Bell in France. Do a YouTube search and you’ll come up with all kinds of really nice videos. I collected some here, but I’m not sure if all of the links are still valid.
http://ookee.com/linkblog/2006/04/parkour/
admin
on January 4th, 2008
Hey Douglas,
Thanks for the link. Some of those Parkour videos are pretty sweet! Like I said in my review, the opening action / chase scene was stunning. The movie was probably worth watching just to see it.
Thanks for stopping by!