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May 2006

DISTRICT B13

By Kam Williams

DISTRICT B13

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Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Director: Pierre Morel
Screenwriters: Luc Besson & Bibi Naceri
Cast: David Belle, Cyril Raffaelli, Tony D’Amario, Dany Verissimo, Francois Chattot, Patrick Olivier, Nicolas Woirion
Rated R for graphic violence, profanity and drug use.
In French with subtitles
Running time: 85 minutes


   

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Leito (David Belle) is a street-savvy resident of a Parisian slum who ended up behind bars because crooked cops were in cahoots with the drug dealers in control of the his walled-in sector of the city. To add insult to injury, his beautiful sister, Lola (Dany Verissimo), has fallen into the clutches of Taha (Dominique Dorol), the cartel’s ruthless kingpin.

But when the gang somehow also gets hold of a weapon of mass destruction set to detonate in 24 hours, the gendarmes can no longer afford to maintain its hands-off attitude. So, they tap Damien (Cyril Raffaeli), a detective trained in the martial arts to track down the neutron bomb. However, because Damien doesn’t know his way around the ghetto, his boss decides to parole Leito in order to have the two take on Taha and his army of thugs.

This urgent, intriguing premise underpins District B13, an adrenaline-charged, futuristic thriller written by Luc Besson, whose equally high-octane The Transporter landed on my 10 Best List for 2002. Besson has again achieved movie magic, here, fashioning the finest action thriller of the year thusfar by combining an unlikely-buddy scenario with the most innovative fight scenes since The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.


Forget about MI-3 or X-Men-3 or any other film franchises. If you only see one film this summer, you need to get out more, but District B13 is the flick you better not miss.
 
Excellent (4 stars)