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District B13 (originally titled Banlieue 13 in its
native France) is directed by Pierre Morel, and stars Bibi
Naceri, David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, Tony D'Amario, and
Dany Verissimo. ***
District B13 takes place in France in the not-so-distant
future. The worst parts of the country have been literally
sealed off by walls, isolating and quarantining the residents
within. In these sectors there is no law and order, and
the drug lords reign supreme. One man refuses to put up
with the drug lords, and destroys a valuable shipment. His
sister is abducted in retaliation, and his plot to rescue
her fails, landing him behind bars. Eventually, he joins
forces with an undercover officer - and the twosome must
find a deadly neutron bomb before it can be set off. ***
As far as “purely action” movies go, District B13 is
a fine French import. It's light on the story and plot development,
but when it comes to action and stunts, the film is on a
plane all its own - and the film spares no expense on the
thrills. The movie feels more like a collection of stunts
and action scenes than something with a flowing, truly coherent
storyline. But at the end, after having been thoroughly
entertained by all of this, who am I to complain? If it's
action you seek, this is your film. ***
The personnel who worked on this film really show their
stuff off in the action scenes, making the entire movie
entertaining. Belle and Raffaelli are more than just actors,
they largely do their own stunt work - and the results speak
for themselves. The filmmakers here edit these action scenes
excellently, and when you watch the movie, you'll see that
the results speak for themselves. The crew here, on both
ends sides of the camera, accomplishes everything they set
out to do. ***
Yes, the characters are a bit on the shallow and one-dimensional
side. But this isn't the kind of movie that puts its emphasis
on character development. For action fans, there's no finer
foreign film. ---
Image And Sound:
My review is based on a screener disc, so picture quality
on it doesn't represent the commercially-released disc.
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