Banlieue-13: Ultimatum (B13/District 13)

This movie makes me want to jump between building

The Story:

Two years have passed since elite French police officer Damien Tomasso (Cyril Raffaelli) teamed up with reformed vigilante Leito (David Belle) to save the notorious District 13, a racially charged ghetto populated by violent drug dealing gangs and vicious killers.

Despite government promises to maintain order, the state of the district has deteriorated, and a group of corrupt cops and elected officials are conspiring to cause civil unrest in D13, looking for an excuse to raze the area and cash in on its redevelopment.

Now Damian and Leito must join forces again, and use their mastery of martial arts and their unique physical skills to bring peace to the neighborhood by any means necessary… before a proposed nuclear air-strike wipes it off the map.

Release Date: February 18, 2009 (France), February 5, 2010 (US)

Distributor: EuropaCorp France

Directed by: Patrick Alessandrin

Starring: David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, Philippe Torreton, Daniel Duval, Elodie Yung

Review:

When I get bored with Hollywood movies, I always turn my eyes to French or Hong Kong movies, because they usually give fresh ideas, both in plot and action sequences. And what’s the best French cinema to watch other than Luc Besson’s (Leon, Taxi, The Fifth Element, Transporter) one? Although he was not the one who directed B-13, he was the producer and writer.


B-13 Ultimatum is the sequel of Banlieue 13 (2004). Although I haven’t see the first movie, I know that it was well received around critics and audiences.


The plot began when special agent Damien Tomasso was framed for drug possession that wasn’t even belong to him. Knew that something bigger is happening and he was jailed so he can’t involved in it, he asked help from his vigilante friend, Leito, to released him from jail.


The pair then found out that some bigger conspiracy to destroy District 13 was initiated by industrial corporate, and the president who doesn’t realize it, plan to evacuate and nuke D-13 because chaos is started to happening there.


With the help of native clans of D-13 that usually fought each others, Damien and Leito set a plan to storm the presidential palace with bare hand to notify the president and save him from surrounding corrupt administrators.


Like the original movie, this sequel also presenting Parkour, martial art that focused on how to move between one spot to another with great speed and agility. This technique also very useful in hand-to-hand combat. Leito cast, David Belle, is the founder of this Parkour art.


B-13, fill with great stunt sequences that were completed without the use of wires or computer generated effects. The scene where Leito jump from building to building using his Parkour when he was chased by the police is very energizing, and he made it look so easy that I want to try it by myself.


The final action scene, when 30 unarmed men raid the heavily guarded presidential palace, and attacked without killing anyone, is also very eye-catching.


This movie is only 96 minutes length and has very fast pace, you won’t get bored even for just a sec. It’s a very fresh getaway from CGI and digitalized actions that dominated the market nowadays.


My Rating: B

IMDb user rating: 6.4/10

Rotten Tomatoes meter: 73%

Metacritic:64/100

Yahoo! critics: n/a

Yahoo! users: B+

Your Rating: (2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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