Hey, have you ever seen…District B-13?

Damien:
You really think the government would kill two million people just for having a few problems?

Leïto:
Six million died for not having blonde hair and blue eyes.

Luc Besson.

Now that I have your attention, try and catch up with this flick before it gets a thorough American remake violation.  District B-13 (Or Banlieue 13 in the native tongue) combines things we all know and love – dystopian futures, fight sequences, class struggles, French people, Luc Besson penned script, parkour, and inexplicably (if briefly), tuner cars – into a pretty damned watchable action flick.  Who doesn’t want to watch French guys running up and down walls and whatnot?  You’re only fooling yourself.

For some reason every time I type the word French my fingers type Fresnch.  It’s the Fresno in me.

Alright, so…I mean there’s not a whole lot to really espouse on about this movie.  The action is exciting and well done, if still very…action-y.  The movie would actually be pretty run-of-the-mill popcorn fare except for a couple things.

Firstly, the movie stars David Belle, who is one of the founding papis of Parkour, which roughly translates into: do ninja flips and shit in a black tanktop.  David totally does ninja flips and shit, all over the place, and on people’s grills.  It’s sort of interesting how they work his athleticism into some of the action, which actually gets fairly brutal (just check out how he lands himself in the joint).

Secondly, there is the whole sort of under-story about class struggle, having pride in your neighborhood, and all that good stuff.  I’m thinking it’s part of the film that may come off a little deeper  in the country that gave us tongue-kissing, but it’s still understandable here.  There’s the rich, privileged cop who is all about the rightness of his government, and the urban ninja-flipper who is down on the streets, yo!  He knows the Government just wants to keep the people of B-13 down, and it’s like that, and that’s the way it is.

Anyways, like I said, it’s not a particularly deep movie, but it’s a good action flick that doesn’t revolve around cars, like Fast and Furious, or… uh… cars, like Transporter, or… or… cars, like Death Race.  But there are cars!  If, that’s what you want.  They’re just not the focal point.  So try it out.  Like I said, there’ll be an American remake soon, and I bet it has more stuff to do with cars.

Plus, if you see this version first, you can be the guy who goes “ugh…the original was way better.”