It's the year 2010, and Paris has walled off its more troublesome ghettoes from the rest of the city, essentially giving
them up for lost. One man still bent on cleaning up the neighborhood joins forces with a cop to stop a local drug lord from firing a missile that will destroy all of Paris. Oh, and the guy's sister is chained to the missile. Oh, and nearly everyone communicates through a nifty style of urban martial arts known as parkour. That's the premise in "District B13," a ridiculously entertaining French action flick that's loaded with style, wit and jaw-dropping feats of physical prowess. Now, when I say "ridiculously entertaining," I don't mean the film is entertaining because it's so ridiculous, although it certainly is not what you'd call realistic. I mean that it's ridiculous how entertaining it is. I think of all the millions spent on "X3" or "M:I-3," when what they really needed to be successful wasn't money but energy. "District B13" has energy, all right, coming from the team that brought you "The Transporter" and "Unleashed" (aka "Danny the Dog"), both similarly gleeful in their manic violence. It begins with Leito (David Belle) disposing of a suitcase full of cocaine that he stole from neighborhood kingpin Taha (Bibi Naceri, who co-wrote the screenplay). Baha's goons come after him, and Leito makes an extraordinary escape from his upper-story apartment in a dilapidated tenement.
To read the rest of this review, click on the relevant link below.