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Directed by: Pierre Morel, written by Luc Besson Starring: Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle They could've called this movie "Completely Badass" and it would have fit the bill. Banlieue 13 (in French, w/subtitles) has been generating a buzz abroad on the foreign film market since its release in 2004, and with good reason. Anyone who's ever heard of the semi-sport "Parkour", aka "freerunning", knows how amazing and athletic some of those people are. It's hard to describe in words because you really need to see it to believe it, but a clip from the opening scene of this movie has been floating around for awhile, and you may recognize it from a series of Nike commercials that aired a couple years ago. It's essentially moving freely through urban surroundings and hurdling/climbing any obstacles in your way. It includes people kicking off walls, doing all sorts of flips and grabbing edges of buildings, as well as often HUGE building-to-building jumps, and that's not even the half of it. More about Parkour here: http://www.le-parkour.com/ This movie contains literally some of the best chase scenes, stunts, and real athleticism I've ever seen in a film, hands down. And not even just one, several of the best I've ever seen. Fortunately the stars are believable enough to pull this off, because Raffaelli is an experienced stuntman, and Belle is actually one of the co-founders of Parkour. So it's worth seeing just for these two great stunt talents alone. The somewhat loose story, written by Luc Besson, revolves around a near-future Paris, where some urban areas have gotten so violent and overridden with crime that the French government has opted to build security walls around them, basically abandoning them with loose police governments and internal mafia syndicates. The kingpin of this mafia is Taha, a druglord with an army big enough to take over Paris. Long story short, he messes with the wrong guy, a local resident named Leito (Belle) and his very cute sister Lola (Dany Verissimo), and all hell breaks loose once Leito teams up with an undercover cop named Damien (Raffaelli) to defuse a bomb that will destroy B13 within 24 hours. Granted, the plot IS somewhat derivative, but it's certainly engaging enough to keep the pace going between the real reason to see the movie: Mind-blowing displays of athleticism, kickass chase scenes, and cool gunfights. Not even Hollywood-style, either, this isn't Bruckheimer action. It's easily more impressive than the action and stunt sequences in 99% of what the US film industry puts out every year. It's thrilling, impressive, and many scenes will have your jaw hitting the floor in amazement. For what it's worth though, the plot really isn't bad, and I can't say I found myself wishing the pace would pick up so I could see more action, because there's plenty of that to go around. If I have one gripe about this movie, it's that it's too drat short. A decent plot and amazing stunts are great, but it's only about 80 minutes long. Another say, 20 minutes or so and it would be an action masterpiece. But as it stands now, it's still an excellent action film that will have you telling your friends "You've got to see this". RATING: 4.5 PROS: Absolutely jaw-dropping action sequences and stunts, excellent cinematography. CONS: Somewhat weak story and characters, pretty short. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414852/
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Mar 16, 2006 08:14
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 18:44 |
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