DVD: District B13

DVD Reviewed by The Evil Dr Sanchez, Esq.

Editor's Rating:  

(3 /10)

Starring: Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle

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Cashing in on the current media interest in parkour – the art of motion that uses walls, and other things usually considered as obstacles as a means of getting from one place to another – District B13 stars the movement’s creator David Belle as Leïto and stunt coordinator and martial artist Cyril Raffaelli as Capt. Damien Tomaso, the film’s two main protagonists.

In Paris, 2013, Leïto ekes out an existence in the titular district, which has become so much of a violent ghetto that a wall separates it from the rest of the city, schools have been shut down and the police are getting their arses the hell out. When a highly armed and murderous drug gang kidnaps Leïto’s sister, Tomaso, an elite cop, must convince him to join forces in order to save the girl and stop a nuclear bomb from destroying his home.

Action packed? You betcha. Clichéd as hell? God yes. The fight and chase scenes, of course, are beautiful to watch, especially thanks to the use of parkour which makes movement of the human form look amazingly fluid and flexible. Unfortunately, this film has been dubbed into English and the accents of the characters vary from English to American, which makes the dialogue seem silly (watch out for the ‘mega’ argument) and hard to swallow. In fact, it gets pretty lame and the thin plot does more to enhance this than help – 24 hours to defuse a bomb and save heaps of people, no sir, I can’t say that I’ve heard that before.

That the film is written by cult French director Luc Besson (Taxi, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc) may be of interest to some. The film is the directorial debut of one of Besson’s favourite cameramen, Pierre Morel and thereby the parkour scenes are shot to full impact. The only time when the acting is not wooden is when its stars are doing what they do best: fighting and moving through seemingly impossible obstacles. The villain and his henchmen are the usual bumbling clods.

You may be delighted (yes, you do smell sarcasm) though to know the film has a message, the old ‘equality, liberty, fraternity’ motto of the French Republic. Whilst this is a noble and just cause, it is not brought into the plot until Tomaso has to convince Leïto that his mission is worthy of his time. This message leads to a plot twist many will see coming. And the build up to said mission feels like it takes longer than executing it.

What bugs this humble reviewer also is that if the plot is set in the future, why is there only one real futuristic gadget? I want more gadgets, more gadgets and Jean Reno being the cop with a heart of gold climbing buildings, chasing the bad guys and being sardonic … just me?

Honestly, if you are into parkour, gun action, violence, films that look like they could be turned into a video games and the odd muscle car check District B13 out (sorry, there is only one proper hard-arsed chick). The extras are quite cool though and give an insight to the construction of the excellent fight/chase scenes, and there is a French language version.