District 13 Ultimatum Free Hollywood Movie District13Ultimatum Review
Action-flick junkies in the U.S. should be worshipfully grateful to the French purveyors of the form, most notably grand master Luc Besson. The writer, producer and director has left his imprimatur in one way or another on all manner of international movie mayhem, including the “Transporter” series; Liam Neeson’s recent showcase, “Taken”; the John Travolta vehicle “From Paris With Love” (see review below); the original installment of “District 13″ from 2004; and now the giddily gonzo sequel “District 13: Ultimatum.”
Besson’s protégé Patrick Alessandrin takes the reigns on “Ultimatum” from director Pierre Morel (who also helmed “Taken” and “From Paris”), but as with the conception of all those other movies, Besson is the brain behind it all.
Besson’s philosophy of breakneck action and spectacular set pieces guides the brilliant blend of physical stunts and cartoon conception of a walled-in slum on the fringes of a near-future Paris. Multiethnic warlords trade in drugs, weapons and the wretched humanity of its citizens — and the cops don’t give a toss about any of it. In fact, the authorities do their darnedest to get the crumbling district (or banlieue) nuked off the map.
The first “Banlieue” film, directed by Pierre Morel, finally made it here in 2006. Now it’s time for its 2009 sequel, directed by Patrick Alessandrin, to stop by.
For first-time viewers, or fans who have forgotten the characters — and even the word “characters” may afford these heroes too much depth — it may take awhile to get into. Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) is a tough, incorruptible cop; Leito (David Belle), an iconoclastic criminal.
They share a moral code, though — and an ability to leap like Hong Kong heroes from balcony to rooftop, before disappearing feet first through half-open transoms or car windows.
There’s not much more to them than that, and the story is similarly spare: A corrupt, quasi-governmental power (the, um, “Harriburton” corporation) wants to demolish Leito’s neighborhood so it can build some hugely profitable new housing.
And if that means the company has to kill a lot of poor people — and even a few cops — along the way, c’est la guerre.
That’s about all there is to it, but the sequel is actually an improvement on the first film with a more diverse cast, several standout action sequences and a wild sense of comic-book, over-the-top camp (one of our heroes puts on drag to go undercover as a kick-boxing prostitute; one of the film’s heroines has a lethal ponytail).
Neither Raffaelli nor Belle is much of an actor — they’re athletes, first and foremost. But that’s what a movie like this needs. And once he moves away from the bullet-fast tracking shots, director Alessandrin does a good job of both keeping the scenes moving and keeping the action clearly understandable and within the frame.
Synopsis: Two years have passed since elite police officer Damien Tomasso (Cyril Raffaelli) teamed up with reformed vigilante Leito (parkour originator 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. With bone crunching fights and death defying leaps, this adrenaline charged sequel takes the groundbreaking parkour action from DISTRICT B13 to thrilling new heights.
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