District B13/District 13: Ultimatum 2-Pack (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)District B13 (Banlieue 13) is your standard low budget action flick, lots of action sequences and fight scene with a weak plot about a ghetto district in Paris where the gangs are so bad, that the French gov't built a wall around it. Now in 2010, with no hope of bringing peace to the district, the French gov't is going to blow up the district with a bomb. Our two heroes fight their way to the bomb only to fight over whether the bomb is going to blow up or deactivate when the time reaches zero. The 2 heroes bring the bomb to the presidents office and use it to persuade him to open up district 13 and tear down the wall.
District 13: Ulimatum (Banlieue 13: Ultimatum) is the sequel, with a slightly higher budget, better camera work and a deeper plot. Surprise, nothing has changed, the wall is still up and gangs still control district 13. Now in 2013, big surprize 2012 didn't happen, the French gov't has become corrupted and is sparking a war between the gangs and police to convince the president to blow up district 13. The Department of Internal State Security is taking care of anyone that will get in the way of their plot including our 2 heroes. Leito breaks Damien out of jail and the two snoop around in police headquarters and find out what's what. Paris is about to erupt in riots, and the president is about to blow up district 13. So our 2 heroes and the 5 gang lords unite to break into the control room where the president is about blow up district 13 and expose DISS' plot to the president. After stopping the president from blowing up the district *spoiler* the 5 gang leaders and leito agree it's best just to rebuild and the president blows up the district anyway. *spoilers*
As you can see from my plot summaries the sequel has more plot, which does mean less action but makes it a more well rounded movie. I perfer the French audio as the English audio is just a word for word translation without much thought toward lip syncing and can get annoying.
Bottom line: If you just want a flick like Mortal Kombat just go with District B13. If you like plot more than action get District 13: Ultimatum. If both sound good, get this.

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With bone crunching fights and death defying leaps, this adrenaline charged follow-up takes the groundbreaking parkour action from DISTRICT B13 to thrilling new heights. (Fangoria) Two years have passed since elite police officer Damien Tomasso (Cyril Raffaelli) teamed up with reformed vigilante Leito (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. A group of corrupt cops and elected officials conspire to cash in on the redevelopment of the district by proposing its destruction under nuclear air strike. Damian and Leito must join forces again, using their martial arts and unique physical skills, to bring peace to the neighborhood by any means necessary.

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District B13 (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)Set in the year of 2010, `Dictrict B13' features two no-nonsense fighters Damian and Leito in the titular crime-infested area near the city of Paris. They fight the drug-addicted kingpin and his thugs before finally saving the world too. The story of French action film `District B13' (written by Luc Besson) needs lots of suspense of disbelief even though in reality we recently witnessed the outbreak of riots in this country. Still the actions of are all first-rate, and the two leads of the film Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle are more impressive than any other famous names from the Hollywood products.
Part buddy-buddy movie features crime-fighting Damian (stunt-turned actor Cyril Raffaelli, `Kiss of the Dragon') and ex-thug Leito (David Belle), both of whom have to join forces to accomplish the missions of their own. Not much is original, I admit, as far as the script by Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri (the latter also appears as the mobster) is concerned, but we are not watching this film for the story, and you should know it.
[EYE-POPPING STUNTS] The film will grab your attention from the opening section, where Leito runs away from the thugs sent from the gangster. For incredibly agile David Belle, jumping on the rooftops from one building to the other (like Jackie Chan in `Rumbles in Bronx') is not enough. Before doing these breath-taking stunts, he actually climbs down on the wall of the building, jumping from a balcony to the one below. And that's only the beginning of the eye-popping action sequences, in which like Buster Keaton he keeps running inside and outside of the buildings, and his rhythmical movements are often so beautiful that you might forget that he is really doing a death-defying actions.
[NO WIRE, NO CGI] Cyril Raffaelli is also great, showing the martial arts skills only the real stunt persons can reveal. You just have to see their stunts that are done by the actors themselves without using any wire and special effects (that's why it was shot in Romania, where the regulations are less strict). Their stunts remind the film fans of one Thai movie `Ong-Bak,' but the stunts in this French actioner are done in a different style with more vertical movements and less bone-crunching fighting. And they are both fantastic.
This is a non-stop French action hugely entertaining with incredible actions. You may not like the preposterous story, but once these actions start, you just cannot blink a second.

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DISTRICT B13 - DVD Movie

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