District B13 (2004) [Movie Review]

District B13 is more or less Parkour: The Movie. It stars one of the founders of the sport, David Belle, and the majority of the film is him running and jumping around, parkour style. This was made around the time that parkour was a huge thing, so I have to imagine the audiences of it's initial release loved it.

But in addition to the parkour, we also get a plot! Crazy how that works. This movie is set in a dystopian future in which crime has gotten so bad, government of Paris has sealed off their ghettos from the outside world. Half of the people inside the wall are in gangs, and the other half simply try to survive the day. Taha leads the main gang in this film, upon finding an armored car with a bomb set to blow in 24 hours, a cop is sent in to defuse it.

I didn't know what to expect from this movie. I noticed it was getting an American remake, which I also knew nothing about, so I decided to watch the original first. I am pleased to say that movie was much better than I had been anticipating.

To begin, the world is set up in such a nice way. It did a great job showing just how bad life in B13 was. The film also did a marvelous job introducing the characters, especially Belle's character, Leïto. The first portion of the film had a sort of mystery surrounding Leïto, which kept the viewers interested. Oh, and the action helped keep the movie interesting too.

I have little else to say about B13. It was a solid action film with great performances and insane stunt work. If you plan on seeing the upcoming Brick Mansions, I highly recommend you view this this first.

Rating: 8/10

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