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David Belle as Leito leaping into action in District 13 Ultimatum |
It may be a political message, but District 13 really is a riot!
DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM
Directed by Patrick Alessandrin
Certificate 15
IT seems the words of French president Nicolas Sarkozy have taken effect on film-maker Luc Besson: the Prez slammed Parisian rioters a couple of summers ago, calling them scum and suggesting they would only react to having their heads cracked together.
Besson, who has written the screenplay for District 13, uses a hyper-violent secret state militia to take on an underclass roughly modelled on those who took to the streets.
Scratch the surface of this action flick and there is a bit of rebellious anti-establishment grandstanding going on. The projects that ring Paris have long been a ghetto, where immigrants and the working-classes face terrible poverty. France watched as they burned and, while District 13 has a president who is on the side of the people, the real baddies are secret service chiefs aching to get their hands bloody with a bunch of hardcore gangs running the drugs trade in walled-off ghettoes. It makes Besson’s influences all too apparent.
We meet top cop Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) as he single-handedly infiltrates and then arrests a major drug gang at their fortified nightclub. He is dressed as an “exotic” female dancer, wiggling seductively in front of the head baddie before kicking two tonnes out of him.
But he is due to face a tougher test: a gang of corrupt cops and civil servants want to start a war in District 13, a section of Paris where the law fear to tread.
They turn agent provocateurs, murdering two police officers and dumping their bodies in 13, wanting to use this as an excuse to kill the inhabitants and raze the crumbling tower blocks to the ground – thus cashing in on lucrative re-building contracts and ridding the city of gang lords at the same time.
Apparently, an American company called Harriburton, which according to the plot have also rebuilt half of Iraq, are ready to step in. How happy the company – who have done rebuilding work for the US government – would be about this is a question that I imagine may have vexed lawyers.
When free-runner Leito (David Belle) uncovers this devious plot, he joins forces with Tomaso and the pair have to take on the might of the French security forces.
While this flick is utterly silly in places, it’s got a lot going for it. The kung fu action scenes and stunts draw on Hong Kong movies and are brilliant. The free-running, which is the film’s calling card, is particularly spectacular.
Leito’s escape from his tower block flat as militia thugs come to arrest him is utterly stunning to watch and sets this apart from other such movies made by the likes of Vin Diesel.
In fact, despite the clichés, the macho posturing, the dodgy stereotypes and the oodles of rippling muscles scarcely hidden under the dirty white vests, District 13 is great fun.
If you like an action movie, you’ll love this. |
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